


Burning Down Neverland

by butimbroken, Scribes1015



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:00:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 54,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28224270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butimbroken/pseuds/butimbroken, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribes1015/pseuds/Scribes1015
Summary: A/U. For just a moment, Angel let himself make a hearty birthday wish on a flickering candle.
Relationships: Angel/Buffy Summers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

Buffy Summer was tired and ready to just take a break, she waved her friends off as it came her turn to gossip about the latest job she'd just returned from earlier, finally having everything in place on it, and not even wanting to speak about the lot of them ever again if it could be helped. That whole experience had been draining, she wanted to just relax with some of the boys for a little while before heading home to get some much needed sleep in... 

"I'll give a hard pass," she mumbled, reaching into the small fridge for a cold water bottle. Coming around to take a seat at the small square shaped table, her bottom was just about to touch the chair when Doyle started muttering some Irish swears and his hand shot out to his head once the vision struck. 

Lorne had reached over quickly to grab a pen and a scrap of paper as he noticed those first signs of what was to come, sliding them to Doyle so he could jot down the information The Powers That Be were shooting through to him. 

They all waited quietly while the vision came and went and Doyle took a moment to recover, shaking his head and for the million time since she'd known him alone muttering how he wished they'd come up with a better messaging system. Cracking open her bottle, she took a small sip while Lorne finally questioned who the lucky winner was. 

When Doyle's eyes met hers, Buffy sighed, pushing the lid back on. She'd really been hoping to have at least a small break between these little quests. She held her hand out and he shot her a look full of "I'm sorry" as he reached over to place the small brown piece of paper in her palm. 

Buffy mouthed the words as she read them then looked over at the dark-haired seer. "Stroke of midnight?"

"Give or take some seconds," Doyle smirked. 

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Isn't she a little  _ old  _ to be carrying out birthday wishes?"

" _ He _ ."

"He?"

"This Angel is a  _ male _ ."

She thought that over for a moment. Hardly the craziest name she'd come across. "Okay, well, isn't  _ he  _ a little old for this mess?"

Doyle shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, you know certain days affect the humans more than other creatures, it makes them more open, a little more vulnerable to make a wish of their hearts buried desires...  _ childlike _ for even just a moment to believe in the impossible."

Buffy sighed. Yeah. She remembered. 

OoOoO

Sitting up in bed, Angel furrowed his eyebrows together as he stared at the closed door to his bedroom, trying to pinpoint the noise coming from elsewhere in his apartment. Hearing more, he glanced at the clock, seeing it was just about time for the sun to make an appearance. Creeping slowly out of the bed, he made his way across the room, slowly opening the door and making his way out closer to the noise. 

Angel's entire body came to a sudden halt as he spotted a strange blonde woman moving about his kitchen, messing with his coffee maker and grabbing mugs from cabinets, all like she owned the damn place. "Excuse me?" he finally said after she had started a fresh batch. 

The woman didn't jump, flinch, nothing. No, she twirled around like it was perfectly normal for her to be here and smiled a little. "Oh, good, you're up. Though I was hoping to have you a fresh cup of coffee ready to go before you did but what can you do?"

Angel just stared at her. "What are you doing in my apartment?" finally blurted out of his mouth. 

"Right," she said, shaking her blonde locks a bit with her heads' movements. "Okay, well, I'm Buffy and I am here to help you make a wish come true."

He cocked an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you're going on about. God, did Lindsey send you? Are you a stripper... or something?"

The woman, Buffy, rolled her green eyes. "I most certainly am not."

"Then who the hell are you and how did you get in here?"

"As the days rolled over to a new one, you grabbed a little blue candle. You lit it, holding it in your hands as you thought about your birthday that was rolling in, you thought about your past, your future, what you wanted in life... you thought about your place in the world. You closed your eyes, you opened your heart to the possibilities of what could be and you blew out that candle pinched between your fingers as you wished for-"

"How did-"

"-something that you would view as your happy ending. The Powers That Be picked you out of a hat - so to speak - and said that one gets a chance. So, here we are. Angel. Liam Angelus of little Sunnydale, California."

"Powers That Be? Wha-"

"That's who I work for and who's trying to grant your wish. Happy Birthday!"

"So... _ okay.  _ So, the "powers that be" sent you?" He questioned before looking her up and down. " _ You're  _ supposed to be my-"

She held up a hand, stopping him. " _ Oh, please.  _ That's Rule Number One. I absolutely am  _ not  _ anyone's happily ever after. I'm just here to _ help  _ you."

"Like a fairy godmother?" he questioned, cocking up one eyebrow.

She glared. " _ No _ . I'm more like a guide. No wands here," she said, holding her hands out.

"A guide?" he echoed, more confused by the second. This obviously was the result of drinking too much, lack of sleep, a dream... something. 

"Yep. I'm sent here to help you on this little journey. I help you figure out exactly what a happy ending is in your mind and from there we work on making that wish become reality."

His mouth opened, shut, then opened again. "How exactly would you make that happen?" he found himself questioning. 

The blonde shrugged, turning her back to him to focus back on the coffee that had finished brewing. "A happy ending is a very broad term you would find, it can mean so many things to different people. The obvious is love, you find your soulmate, or at least someone you want to be with, and run toward happily ever after. But then again sometimes a happy ending is having a child, having or creating a family… or, maybe an orphan reconnecting with the family who gave him or her up or finally finding a completely new one, it covers a lot of ground. Usually the wisher already has exactly what they want in mind when they make that plea out into the universe but not always."

Angel just stared at her, his mind spinning. 

"Do you know what you want?" she asked.

He didn't answer. 

" _ Anywho _ ," she said, bringing him a cup of coffee and laying out a scroll with a large black pen on top of it once it unrolled. "The deal is... you made a wish, you were chosen to have a chance at it being granted. You sign the contract and I, under the supervision of the PTB, do whatever I can to guide you to whatever that happy ending may be."

"Right," Angel chuckled in utter confusion and shock of what was happening. 

"You have until your next birthday to carry out your wish. I do have to tell you some of the other rules... such as you cannot suddenly change the wish that you already whispered out into the unknown. You cannot give your wish to someone else. You cannot get a refund should things go awry..."

"Wishes, happily ever afters...  _ refunds _ ?"

Buffy propped her elbow up on the counter island of his kitchen, her body leaning so she could rest her chin on her hand. "Again, no magic wands, I can't do all the work for you and certainly can’t help you out forever. I can get you to the happy ending but you have to make it work. That’s the deal. Sometimes... well, sometimes things don't go how it was imagined after some time. It's not an exact science here and apparently it all has only gotten harder in time to actually please people. Like, say, you may wish for a prince, you may get the prince and the whole shebang, but you go and decide he snores too loud and you want to smother him in his damn sleep. Maybe he can't keep his hands to himself and you are sick and damn tired of it. There’s just so many things. You might wish for a son, you leave out some details, suddenly you got a Pinnochio situation. Things happen."

"Sure. Because... of course. Right."

She shrugged, standing up again and taking a sip of her own cup of coffee. 

"What-what if I don't want to sign any contract? What if I don't want my wish filled?" he asked, not sure why he was even letting this woman continue on with her delusions. 

"If you wish to opt out, then that's simple. Easy peasy. You just don't sign and I am gone like," she trailed off, snapping her fingers and disappearing from right in front of him. By the time he got finished telling himself he was fucking losing it, she was suddenly there again. As if this was fucking normal, every day shit. "You can also sign the contract and still opt out any time you wish. No one is going to force you to live happily ever after, that would be ridiculous."

"Yes, that would just be simply too much," he drawled.

OoOoO

The second time Angel rose from his bed, he felt like he had been hit with a baseball bat all over his body. His head hurt. He still had that stupid dream spinning in his head of that beautiful blonde and her nonsense about being some being with some mystical power bullshit yadda yadda, talking him into signing his name on a glowing dotted line and watching as it suddenly turned to ash before disappearing into thin air. 

Shaking his head, he got out of bed, wondering how he had been able to sleep so late as he saw it was nearly noon. His stomach growled and as he headed out of his bedroom he tried deciding between a shower first or making something quickly when suddenly a strangled noise came from his throat. 

Setting the book in her hand to the side, Buffy locked eyes with him once more. "Well hello again, sleepy head," she grinned, her eyes flickering over his nearly nude form. 

"Uh," he stumbled. "You're real… I mean your still… you're here," he gasped. Clearly someone had slipped him something at dinner last night, he'd done his fair share of partying over the years, but he'd never experienced anything close to this.

She rolled her eyes, "We covered this already, remember?" 

Shaking his head, he tried one more time to pull himself from this delusion. When it didn't work, he grabbed her, thrusting her up against him, he slammed his lips to hers half expecting her to disappear again. 

Completely caught off guard, it took her a second but she quickly recovered, shoving him off her. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

His mouth hung open, apparently he could scratch hallucination from his list. There was no way his mind was capable if imagining something so divine. "Okay," he sighed. "For the last time who put you up to this? If it wasn't Lindsey, it had to be Gunn… or Wesley," he paused long enough to look back at her again. "Was it Wesley?" 

Her arms crossed over her chest, why did the hot ones always have to be so damn dense… if you asked her, it took all of the fun out. "Are you on drugs or something? 'Cause I probably should have mentioned there's a whole section about that." 

His eyes narrowed, "What? No." Though even he had his doubts at the moment, "I mean I don't know... did-did  _ you  _ give me something?" 

Reaching out she grabbed his arm, tugging him behind her she led them over to the sofa. Pushing him down on the couch, she snapped her fingers, suddenly revealing the stack of papers with his glowing signature scrolled along the top. 

Eyeing them wearily, he hesitated for a moment before reaching out to examine them. "So… all of this is real," he asked, tracing the ink of his name. "I'm not imagining things or on some sort of weird reality tv show?" 

"Oh please," she giggled. "Trust me, hollywood couldn't afford me, and Ashton Kutcher has long since retired from his days on MTV. Besides why would they prank you?"

"Why did you pick me," he groaned leaning back against the soft cushions of the couch. There was no way anyone would believe this, not that he would ever bring it up, this was the type of thing that got people committed. 

Taking a deep breath she sat down in the small space between him and the side of the sofa. Linking their fingers, she slowly pried his arm back from his face. "Angel, look at me," she commanded softly, bringing his hand to her lap. "I know this can be a lot for some people, but the sooner you realize that this isn't some parlor trick, the sooner we can get on with figuring out just what makes you happy. _ As I said before _ , we don't have a whole lotta time, especially not in your case. We have exactly three hundred, sixty-four days, and…" she glanced down at the tiny silver watch on her wrist. "Twelve hours, give or take," she shrugged. 

His thumb traced the inside of her palm, who, or whatever she was, she positively one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen. "And you're sure that you're not a part of it, my happiness I mean?" 

Her eyes went wide, the powers had really threw her a curve ball with this one, she'd never had a charge quite so appealing before. Suddenly all those rules they had in place for this sort of thing were making a lot more sense. She squeezed his hand a little harder, "I'm just a guide," her voice softened further. "I mean I am human, more or less anyways, but people like me, we don't belong to ourselves." 

"I don't understand."

She sighed, she hated when she had to go into this whole spiel. It made her job a whole lot easier when the people she was assigned too didn't question things. Most of the time, especially these days, her "clients" would hear the word wish and think they hit the lottery… no explanation needed. Then there were times like these, the ones like her Angel here who had to ask all of the questions, and have all of the answers before they could even consider this gift they were offered. "It goes like this, when you're created or whatever, long before you're born, you get a choice. You can either be sent to Earth to live your life as every other mortal, or you can choose to stay and work for the powers, most people - well the old souls at least, they usually choose to return to Earth, but every once in awhile you get someone like me who isn't down with the death and destruction this planet has to offer, so we choose to do something else, a higher power of sorts." 

He wasn't sure why he was still entertaining this nonsense, but as much as the voice inside of him screamed at him to throw her out, he couldn't bring himself to listen. "So you're saying we're all... reincarnated?"

She shrugged, the truth was even she wasn't sure about all that. The powers were good at keeping you on a need to know basis, life, death, birth, the weight of life wasn't really something that concerned her, not in their eyes anyway. She was a guide, she was here to help people find happiness, not judge them for their sins, that was a whole other department that she'd done a damn good job avoiding… so far. "It's possible. Look, like I told you last night, I don't have all of the answers. All I know is what I'm told, and that's not much, but the jist is, I'm here to help you find whatever it is that makes you happy," she smirked, "And the one thing that I can guarantee is that it has absolutely nothing to do with me. I'm pretty sure there's actual laws against that type of thing actually, but besides that trust me when I say, you only think this whole wish granting thing is a lot to take in… there's entire worlds out there that people have no idea about," she pressed a finger to his lips, "And before you start it's best that you don't know. The less you know the better, plus it's not like you'd remember anyway."

He winced, "What do you mean?" 

Curling her feet underneath her, she turned, to lean back next to him against the fluffy cushion. "When this is over, when the year is up, whether you've found happiness or not, I'll disappear… the powers will work their mojo or whatever, and you won't remember a single thing about me."

"What?" He gasped, "Why?" 

Her eyes stung for a moment, but she quickly pushed her own emotions to the side. "It's just the way it is, it's part of the deal. It's all covered on page seventeen, I do my job, you find happiness, they meddle with your memories and life goes on. You of course don't have to take the whole year to decide on your happiness but that's again how much time we have. But anyway, you are better off without memories of all of this, trust me. It's a lot for humans to deal with."

"I can't imagine why that might be."

"Getting through the wish part is already one thing. Having someone carry that around forever has been found to be just a little too much for most people," she continued.

"D-do you? Do you remember it though?"

Buffy nodded. "I have my memories, and I have files of all of my clients. Sometimes it's nice to remember, or to check in on them, see how things are going."

Angel was quiet for a long while. He didn't think he liked the idea of someone toying with his memories or of her remembering him when he wouldn't be allowed the same. "So... what is it I am supposed to do exactly?" he finally asked, unsure if he wanted an answer on that or not at the moment. 

"Well, like I said, you first need to figure out what it is you want.. if you don't already know. That's a good jumping off point." 

Angel clenched his jaw for a moment. "When I made that wish last night... this morning... whatever you want to call it... I was thinking about how a good portion of my friends have settled down, not all married but, you know, in committed, strong relationships... planning on weddings or babies in the near future and shit like that. The majority of the time I brush off their random comments about how I should settle down, too, find some nice girl and all that... but I don't know, last night I was just thinking about it as I was here alone..."

"And you thought that maybe it would be nice to not be as alone on your next birthday?" she guessed. 

Angel's eyes flickered over her. "Something like that. I mean, I'm going to be seeing my friends later and I have them... but yeah. Maybe it would be nice. I guess."

Buffy smiled a little. "It's not a bad wish," she told him. "No one likes being lonely."

"Are you?" 

Buffy's eyes widened again. "I keep busy," she laughed. 

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I am doing just fine, Angel. Don't worry about that."

He stared a moment too long before asking what would happen after that point, after deciding his happy ending might point in the direction of someone to love. Buffy snapped her fingers again and suddenly she had a notebook and pen in her hands. 

"Well, we get a little more details about what exactly you view as this happy ending bit, maybe discuss any preferences about this mystery girl out there in the world so we can perhaps narrow some stuff down? Then, we can start playing Cupid. I can use magic and knowledge to set you up with these potentials, blind dates, moments to fill in as meet cutes, such as maybe I know the exact time a certain interest of yours might be destined to trip and fall but we tweak that moment just a bit by letting you be there at the perfect time to sweep her off of her feet, saving the day... I can arrange dates, snap my fingers to turn your life into a temporary musical episode of a day of your life..."

"Well, that sounds like a nightmare. Can I say right here and now that I very much do not want that last bit. Keep your Disney magic to yourself when it comes to breaking out into song and dance, please?"

She smirked and wrote something down quickly. "Noted," she promised. "No musical outbursts."

"Thank you," he drawled. 

"Anything else entirely off limits we can get out of the way?" she asked, her pen poised to make any other short notes she might need. 

OoOoO

"O-other people... they can see you... right?"

Buffy looked up from her notebook again. "Yes," she answered slowly. "I'm not some figment of your imagination as much as you would have liked to think so." 

"So... what am I supposed to tell people? Like, about who you are, how we know one another? Like, if my friends see you hanging around for the next year or less and all that?"

Buffy shrugged. "That's kind of up to you, probably want to steer clear of the whole truth though."

"You don't say..."

"Just try to stick to the truth without too many details is usually your best, easiest bet I have found. I can always disappear as needed, try my best to not be noticed, but truthfully sooner or later people usually start noticing and asking questions the longer I am around. Sooner or later they might see us together and you'll have that to answer about it whenever."

"Where do you go?"

"Hmm?"

"When you snap your fingers and suddenly aren't there in front of me or whatever."

She gave him a strange look. "Nowhere in particular, at least not each time. I just think of where I want to be if I have the time, otherwise it's just determined in that split second," she said with a shrug. Sometimes I go where a charge might need me to be, sometimes I drop something off with a higher up, have a council meeting to attend, pop up at a friends', go to my house..."

"You have friends? A house?"

"Yes."

"Like, human friends or otherwordly type folks such as yourself?"

"The latter."

"Where do you live?" 

"That would be a little hard to really explain..."

Angel continued to shoot off question after question about her, her life, this line of work she found herself in until Buffy finally told him perhaps they should focus a little less on her right now and more on this mystery dream girl they needed to help him find. 

OoOoO

"You mentioned you would be spending your birthday with friends?"

Angel looked up and nodded. "Yeah, actually here shortly Lindsey should be showing up to kick things off. Dinner, whatever dumb activity Lindsey has decided on this year, then more than likely ending up at The Bronze... just a club in town."

She tapped her pen a few times. They had already decided she'd do her best to remain unseen to the people closest to him, at least for right now, today if nothing else, but she asked him how he'd feel about her just being out of the club and steering clear of him and the others while they celebrated. 

"Why?"

"Maybe observing you, how you behave, how you react to different women will give me a sense of what you're looking for?" she answered. "Body language is quite a useful tool in this job, people watching, picking up on little clues someone might not otherwise know about even their own selves... and I will use it many times over. It doesn't have to be tonight or at the club though, I was just throwing it out there. I am still happy to start tomorrow, the next day, or whenever you feel ready."

Angel went silent as he contemplated what she was saying, he highly doubted he would be able to interact with any female knowing she was just out there watching. Hell he was still having trouble wrapping his head around this whole mess, if he had it his way he'd make her his date and just be done with the whole thing, problem solved, but apparently that went against her fairy godmother code of conduct or whatever she was. 

"I don't see a problem with that," he finally agreed, it wasn't as if his day could get much weirder than it already was. 

OoOoO

As promised, she'd disappeared before his friend had arrived. It didn't leave her much time, but there was enough for her to pop back home and get changed into something a little more appropriate for a night out. Angel's party was being held at some club called the Bronze, it seemed okay from what she'd seen so far. It was definitely better than some of the whole in the walls she'd been stuck in before anyways, at least it had decent music. 

And him… who she wasn't sure what to think of just yet. Most of the time when she was assigned a new charge she could spot the reason they had trouble finding their very own happily ever after. Sometimes they were slobs, or alcoholic, over achievers, narcissists, and sometimes they were just plain ugly… in all her years with the PTB she had yet to figure out their system, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the people they chose to receive these gifts, her best guess was they threw everyone's name into a hat and shook it up real good, there was just no telling what you were going to get. 

Though Angel didn't seem to have any of the problems her usual clients did, from what all she'd gathered so far he was just a nice normal guy, a normal guy who was built like a Greek God but a normal guy nonetheless. He seemed nice enough a little quiet maybe, but thankfully he wasn't full of himself, and as far as she could tell he didn't have a drinking problem, though his friends did seem a bit intent on giving him one judging from the mass amount of shots they had flowing around them. 

As the night wore on she found it harder and harder to avoid the man she was there to study. Not by any fault of her own, but it seemed the more intoxicated he became the more she felt his eyes locked onto her, easily picking her out of the crowd. At one point he even tried to corner her coming out the restroom, thankfully his little British friend stepped in and completely ignored his ramblings about fairy godmothers, which only seemed to spur Angel on further. 

Luckily she'd found a spot on the second floor, he was still within her view, but it would be hard for him to spot her. She watched amused as he scanned the crowds once more, searching for what she could only assume was herself. 

"Oh Angel," she muttered softly under her breath. He wasn't even paying attention to anyone around him because he was too damn focused on picking her out of the crowd. She'd heard of others running into this problem before, it didn't happen often, and it definitely wasn't something she'd ever had to deal with, but every once in a while you would hear about someone going awol and running off with a mortal. Though usually by the time the stories reached her they were nothing more than a whispered rumor, most of them knew not to pay much mind to the tall tales. Any type of fornication with mortals outside of what they were assigned to do as guides was strictly forbidden, so much so that not even Lorne knew what happened to the poor souls who chose to cross the powers, as far as anyone could tell they just disappeared never to be heard from again. 

Of course she didn't think they were having problems anywhere near that deep, Angel was just intoxicated and everything he'd learned over the last several hours would be a lot for any human to handle. No matter how open minded they seemed to be, there was always an adjustment period when new charges were assigned. He was just curious, and she couldn't exactly fault him for that, though she did hope they were able to push past this stage sooner rather than later. He wasn't helping either of them with the way he brushed off nearly every girl who tried to approach him. 


	2. Chapter Two

She'd almost intervened when she saw his small group of friends fighting to get him in the elevator back at his condo. Though she had to remind herself that it may be a little hard to explain her sudden presence at his place, so she stayed out of sight as she watched the show continue. One thing was for sure, he was going to be in a world of pain come tomorrow. 

She stayed out of sight until his friends had somehow managed to get him safely into bed, then she waited a few minutes longer until the last of them exited his place. Standing in his foyer she double checked the deadbolt before heading towards the kitchen to explore his cabinets. 

Shaking her head, she carefully climbed on top of the counter to reach the one door above the stove that she hadn't been able too. 

"Finally," she sighed, spotting what she'd been searching for all along. She huffed grabbing one of the bottles of pain reliever from the cabinet, hoping carefully off the counters ledge, and after grabbing a cold water from his fridge she said a silent prayer to the powers as she made her way into his bedroom. 

Gently nudging his door open, her breath caught in her throat as he slowly came into view. His clothes were strewn haphazardly throughout the room, his shirt hanging off the one of the posts on his bed. She bit her lip in an effort to stay quiet, he was sprawled diagonally across the mattress, just the corner of his comforter pulled across his lower half, one leg anchored on the floor she could just make out the seam of his boxers which caused her to release a breath she hadn't even known she was holding. 

Inching by him, she sat the bottle of pills along with the water on his little side table where he'd somehow had the mind to sit his phone. Grabbing the charger she plugged in the device just as she heard the faintest snore fall from his lips, her eyes drinking him in just one more time she let out a deep breath, he really was too cute for his own good. Tugging on the comforter, she covered him up as best she could. Leaning down, her fingers lightly stroked against his brow, she hoped he wouldn't feel too badly come tomorrow.

"Goodnight Angel," she whispered softly to his sleeping form. 

Tip toeing back out of his room, she let out a deep breath as she closed the door behind her, trying to shake the strange feeling coursing through her out of her system. She couldn't quite put her finger completely on it but she was absolutely certain there was something different about this particular man from anyone else she'd ever met, certainly different from anyone in all her years of doing this wish granting business, and it was bound to make for an interesting tale to share with the others for years to come if nothing else. 

She just had to survive the ride with him first. 

Sitting down, her eyes drifted around the apartment she was getting a little more used to, still trying to get a sense of who Angel was, she thought about everything she knew so far about the man and what little she knew of what exactly he wanted, and tried to grasp at edges of the picture she was trying to create for him. 

Tonight hadn't exactly been helpful in the ways she had hoped, he was far too caught up in her to deal with anyone else the entire time so that didn't give her a lot to go on. She figured she could always ask him about past girlfriends and see if there was some sort of pattern he liked, maybe one she should know to avoid even, maybe a preference pattern or something. Any deep discussions really hadn't taken place between he and his friends either, it was all light hearted, drinking your face off fun. 

She did get to note how he acted with his friends, however, and how they were with him. And how many women were drawn to him... even if he was otherwise busy trying to play Where's Waldo. She quickly knew it wouldn't be hard finding him potential dates.

OoOoO

Angel groaned as he tried waking up, trying to get the random ass dreams filled of Disney princesses and of a certain beautiful blonde wish granter women out of his head in the process. He was back to convinced it was all just some weird ass dream or something as he struggled to sit up in the bed, last night's activities catching up with him in full force. 

He wondered if going out drinking with the gang were one of those things he was getting too damn old for, too. He sure didn't remember feeling this bad ten years or so ago after a night out. 

Spotting a new water bottle and some much needed medication off to the side of his bed, he hurried to down a couple pills before laying down again and wishing hard for some relief. 

OoOoO

When he finally got out of bed, showered and got himself cleaned up, Angel braved grabbing his phone to see what onslaught he'd missed through the night and headed for the kitchen, feeling starved but unsure if he would be able to actually keep anything down still. 

The soft, "How are you feeling?" coming from behind him nearly had him jumping out of his skin. He half convinced himself none of what happened the day before was real, but there she was. He turned around and nearly choked on damn air as his eyes took in Buffy's small frame, the light sundress she had on, the way her lips created such an easy, welcoming smile, her eyes twinkling as they met his. 

"You're still..."

She giggled a little and nodded her head. "Still here, still have a job to do if you're up for it."

Angel's tongue slipped out to wet his suddenly dry lips. He wasn't sure how these so called Powers That Be expected him to be concerned about some soul mate dream woman person when they sent her, he was utterly convinced as long as she was in his life he would find it nearly impossible to give a second thought to anyone else. "D-did you leave last night? I couldn't find you."

Her smile grew just slightly. "I didn't leave the club until you did," she answered.

"I couldn't find you," he repeated, remembering bits and pieces of the night before. 

"You weren't supposed to be finding me."

"That seems to be a theme of some of our conversations."

"Well... it is the truth."

"Just... I mean just out of curiosity... why exactly is it again that you can't be this whole happy ending person I wind up with?"

He could have swore she blushed a little. "That is just not how this works. It's against the rules, it's the biggest against the rule as we have gone over. It's just now how this is supposed to go."

"Says who?"

"The higher ups, The PTB, who knows who else really."

"Why do you listen to their rules? Why should I?"

"Because it's my job too, it's part of the balance of the universe and all of those lovely things?"

"But why?"

Buffy shrugged. "It's just how it is. I'm sure there's a million reasons as to why but I don't have all those answers. Like, for example, I don't have an answer to even how you are feeling. Or, if you enjoyed your birthday. Or, if you maybe want to go over some of our plans, or go... I don't know... go out for breakfast - or I guess brunch now - and try some social exercises."

Angel fought hard not to smirk at the cute little face she made, how her body twisted just slightly as she teased. 

"Well... how about I get a pre-breakfast, large ass cup of coffee and then we can go out to eat and you can talk with me about whatever you want."

Buffy rolled her eyes before offering to start a pot up for him. 

OoOoO

Buffy tried to ignore those warm chocolate colored eyes staring holes into her as she tried to focus on finishing her latest note from their ongoing conversation about some more of their basic back and forth trying to get to know one another better. She figured getting a fuller scope of just who Angel was and how his life was might help since he wasn't overly helpful with any questions she had about specifics when it came to the end game prize here they were trying to make happen. 

She was starting to think they might just have to do some trial and error with this charge to start out with. Sooner the better too if he kept looking at her the way he had been all damn morning so far. 

He wasn't questioning his sanity as much but she was taking over that job a little for herself with all those deep glances and way too smooth words he had pouring her way. 

Buffy pushed a loose strand of her hair out of her face and behind her ear, looking around the small dining room they were in until someone caught her eye. "She's cute."

"Who?" Buffy gave him some clues as to where to look before he discretely turned his head until he spotted the girl in question. He blinked a few times before shrugging. "I guess," he replied slowly, already having an excuse as to why it would never work. 

"You  _ guess _ ?" 

Angel gave another slight nod before grumbling, "She's a brunette." 

The pen that she was tapping against the little notebook she was using slowly came to a stop, looking up her eyes narrowed when they met his again, "And just what is your preferred hair color?" 

He smirked, "Blonde," he was enjoying getting under skin far more than he should. 

Shaking her head she tried to fight the blush she felt coming over her again, it wasn't that she'd never had a charge try to come onto her before, but this was definitely the first time she'd had trouble ignoring the advances. "Okay, so you gotta thing for blondes," she grinned, scribbling something across her notepad. "At least we're starting to get somewhere. Any other preferences you feel like sharing?" 

"Such as," Angel asked, taking a sip of his coffee. 

"Eye color, height, body type?" She sighed, "Do you prefer someone who's more active, or are you more of the stay in type? Like I said, the more you open up, the easier and quicker this process will be, you will be able to get on with your happily ever after and I will be able to get out of your hair."

Well he definitely didn't like the sound of that, "Green," he whispered, his voice coming out far huskier than he'd intended.

" _ Angelll, _ " Buffy whined, poking her bottom lip out in a mock pout. "You are not helping." 

His gaze locked onto her mouth, he had the overwhelming urge to lean over and touch his lips to hers. He refrained, barely, chuckling instead he threw his hands up in surrender, "Only being honest, Beautiful."

She grinned, "Liam Angelus you are impossible." 

That earned her a full on laugh, "Now that's not fair." It wasn't that no one knew his name, it was on his all of his identification after all but no one used it, ever. "What's your middle name?" 

Buffy shook her head, "No way mister, it's my turn to ask the questions, remember?" Obviously he was more taken with her than most, it was best all around if she kept her guard up as much as possible or else nothing good would come of this she was sure. 

His eyes darkened, resting on his elbows his large frame leaned across the small table, "Let's make a deal." 

"A deal?"

He nodded. "I'll answer whatever you want, I'll go out with whoever you pick,  _ but _ …" 

"But," she repeated, her heart rate increasing, that tiny voice in her head screaming that this was a terrible idea.

"Whatever secrets you want to know of mine, you have to tell me the same," he paused thinking over his words carefully before continuing. The last thing he wanted to do was get her in trouble with whoever the hell it was she worked for, but he felt something when she was around. Something he'd never felt before, it wasn't love or any of that nonsense, but it was something and he at the very least wanted the chance to explore. "And," he added after some consideration, "For every date you set me up on, you have to let me take you out." Seeing the hesitation in her eyes he quickly added, "Even if it's just as friends." 

Letting out a deep breath her teeth rolled over her lip as she contemplated what he was saying. Technically they wouldn't be breaking any rules but it was definitely a slippery slope. "Just as friends," she asked, needing him to clarify it for one more time. 

The corner of his mouth ticked up into a barely restrained smile, "Friends," he nodded again.

OoOoO

Sitting back in his apartment she still wasn't sure how he'd talked her into this. Somehow their little agreement had turned into him convincing her that he was too hungover to start today, then that had turned into him convincing her to have a movie night with him back at his place. 

Grabbing one of the comforters from the hall closet he spread it across them as he took a seat next to her on the sofa. Her knees curled under her, she turned a bit so that she could face him, ever the gentleman he made sure to leave enough space between them so that they weren't touching but still close enough she could feel the heat radiating from his body. 

He'd let her choose what they watched. After all it was the least he could do after convincing her that this was a good idea, but to his surprise she hadn't picked any of the chick flicks most girls gravitated towards, instead she chosen some horror movie that if he were being honest had him a little jumpy at times. 

"Can I ask you something," he finally asked after going back and forth with himself inside his head. 

She smiled, "Well duh." 

"Do you ever get lonely?" 

That was a loaded question, one that she'd asked herself on occasion. Working for the powers could get lonely at times, it wasn't like she didn't have friends, but every once in while she did find herself longing for something more, something outside of charges and duty. 

"Doesn't everyone?"

Without much thought he reached out and tucked a few stray hairs back behind her ear, she really was beautiful. She was deflecting and he knew it, but he'd let it slide for now. If he'd learned anything about his very own little tinkerbell it was that she had the tendency to withdraw when he pushed too far and that was the last thing he wanted, especially now that he felt like he was finally making some headway. "Well," he sighed, "We have each other now, for the next three hundred and sixty three days or so at least so there shouldn't be any reason either of us should feel like that." 

Leaning back against the cushion, her eyes focused on the small stubble that had begun to show along his jaw. "Keeping track are you?"

He just smirked, of course he was counting down the days. This didn't happen to just anyone, and as weird as it had been at first to get used too he was slowly starting to come around. Buffy was most definitely a part of that though, had his guide or whatever she wanted to call herself been some burly bearded man he wasn't sure he could have been convinced. In all his life he'd never spent much time thinking about God or other wordly things, back when his parents were alive they hadn't been very religious so it wasn't something that he'd really been brought up around, and after they passed away he'd pretty much strayed away from anything remotely close to church. But now he couldn't help but wonder if all this was somehow meant to be, obviously it was what with him being chosen and all, but more than that he almost felt like Buffy had been picked just for him, she had to have been. 

She was essentially a stranger, and yet he couldn't help but worry about that sad gleam he would catch flashing behind her eyes when she would talk about herself and her place in the universe. 

He couldn't even begin to wrap his head around what it must be like to be in her position, to really know what her life must be like. He was sure there were many perks to this job, life calling... whatever it was. He was sure that helping people was always an amazing thing of course, but he couldn't seem to get past the sinking feeling he would get when he thought too much into it. 

Always helping others get what they want in life, being in this world and being around others but not really being a part of it, not getting to decide what you want your own self and go after it... it sounded like in other ways it was a raw damn deal. 

Hell, he wasn't entirely sure this whole idea of trying to really befriend her or whatever rather than just use her for some end game happily ever after was even better or worse. For now, he could only see the upside. He was entirely fascinated with her, he wanted to be around her, enjoy her, get to know anything he could... he wanted to have someone around who he could be completely open to as well, who knew parts of him no one else obviously did but he would get a nagging thought in the back of his mind wondering if it wouldn't be damning for her when the year was over. She would lose out on potentially one of the few beings she was close to. She had explained he wouldn't even remember any of this after the contract was either fulfilled or time ran out... but that she would. He just didn't know how he would handle something like that. 

OoOoO

With a quick snap of her fingers, Buffy was back home, her mind telling her to once again ignore the strange feeling coursing through her from her short lived time so far with Angel. She let out a deep breath, placing her trusty little notebook down on her dining room table while coming up with a few quick "meet cute" moments she could create tomorrow to get this ball rolling. 

Deciding to do away with any more thoughts of her latest assignment as she walked into another room, Buffy did everything she could to keep the handsome new man in her life from her mind but that seemed easier said than done. She found herself wondering if he was asleep yet as she made herself a quick snack, she smiled as she grabbed a key from her junk drawer when looking for a sticky pad. One of the last things Angel had said to her before they parted ways tonight was of him asking her to bring something from her house for him... "Be it a thumbtack or paperclip even, just... just something," he had told her. 

Rolling her eyes, she'd snatched it up and placed it on top of her notebook. 

OoOoO

Walking up to the counter so he could get them each a refill of some far too expensive coffee, Angel found himself barely able to catch a woman tripping to the side of him. "Whoa," he called out, balancing her and the empty cups still grasped in his fingers. "You okay?" he asked and his eyes widened as she looked up at him. 

Blonde hair, green eyes. 

He barely heard her response, his head turning back around to find Buffy back at their table. She smiled brightly at him, throwing a thumbs up his direction to boot. 

Helping the young woman back on settled ground, he looked her over again. She was now trying to apologize but he waved her off, especially as he knew the wizarding woman over there was probably the one who made her fall into him to begin with. He did his best to make small talk for a few moments but found it incredibly difficult when his mind was elsewhere and he knew his every move was being watched by her. The blonde was quick to turn flirting with him and lead the conversation though and somehow by the time he got their cups refilled he had apparently agreed to meeting up with her again. 

"See? Now that wasn't so hard," Buffy smiled, taking her cup from him when it was offered.

Angel's head looked at the door where the blonde had disappeared through just a few moments before. "You really think I'm going to fall in love with her?" he asked. 

Buffy shrugged. "I can't really tell you that. I can sometimes get some glimpses into the future but it's by a few minutes at most so I can plan accordingly for a 'chance' meeting or something of the like. I can't tell you how you may feel about that girl if you got to know her. I can't really see the whole picture of what's to be, what's to come."

"No offence, but there does seem to be some flaws in your wish granting system."

That made her chuckle. "I don't make the rules. There's not a perfected science, at least not yet. And... I mean for many... it's at least a start toward something, a chance."

"Uh huh. Well, we will see I guess."

OoOoO

Walking with Angel to his office, Buffy took a deep breath as she stared up at the tall building, probably one of the if not the largest in the small town. 

"What?" Angel asked, taking in the look on her face. 

Once he told her what he did for a living she just didn't see it, she had a hard time imagining him in an office all day, working some nine to five for some reason. And she told him such. 

Angel smirked a little. "Well... I used to be an artist. I kind of did a little bit of everything... mixed media, painting, anything that came to me really. I wasn't some big name or anything but I made a living doing that for awhile."

Buffy let that bit of information sink in for a moment. "You  _ used  _ to be an artist?" she echoed. "How does one 'used to' be something like that?" she wondered out loud. 

"I have a studio still, I mean not much of one... but it's there. I haven't used it in years though. I just... I don't know. One day I lost inspiration to do anything it felt like. Even for fun, or, like, just for myself... it was like nothing came out anymore. So..."

Buffy was silent for another few minutes. "Can I see it? Sometime?"

Angel shrugged. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his keys and slipped two small keys from it. Asking for her notebook, he wrote down the address and pass code to the building and handed it and the keys to her. "Have at it."

Hearing his name being yelled, the two looked over at a young man just coming out of his car. Buffy recognized him from The Bronze as one of Angel's friends. Easily putting distance between herself and Angel, she smiled softly at him once more before walking back the same way they had just came. 

OoOoO

Looking around the studio she was in complete awe. No wonder he was able to support himself through artwork there for a while, most of the time when someone told her they were an artist they turned out hard pressed to prove it. If by chance they could prove it, their quality of work usually spoke for itself in explaining the whole starving artist thing, but Angel, he was amazing. 

There were probably twenty pieces of art scattered about in various stages of completion. Clearly in the wrong profession, he was doing the world a disservice by keeping all of these masterpieces locked away. Spotting a pile of canvases stacked in the corner she carefully made her way over to them, like everything else they were a thing of beauty. Each of them depicted a woman, nude, in various positions. Though they weren't gratuitous, rather the opposite she was utterly captivated. 

Flipping through the images it took her second to realize that all of them seemed to be of the same woman, you couldn't see her face but there were little details that gave it away. The crease of her elbow, the slope of her breast, the dip in her side, they were all identical in every single one. The thought of who this mysterious woman might be crossed her mind, obviously Angel had been enamored with her, perhaps the black and white drawings were her first to clue to finding his happily ever after. 

Her curiosity peaked, she pulled a sheet of one of the larger pieces. In an instant all the air rushed from her lungs it felt like the one time she'd been thrown from a horse when she was out riding with Lorne. Her head was spinning, it couldn't be that was impossible. Taking a deep breath she looked back at the portrait before her, the woman's face was nothing more than a gaping smear of charcoal but there was no doubt in her mind, the woman was her. 

Not only was every curve, every line identical but he'd even gone as far as to capture the small birthmark she had just below the curve of her hip. At least she thought it was a birthmark, she'd had the mark for as long as she could remember, barely larger than freckle it formed a near perfect heart. Being a servant to the powers meant that she had never indulged in pleasures of the flesh, no one had ever seen it before, well no one other than her parents and they were long gone. 

None of this was making sense, as carefully as she could she began examining every piece she could get her hands on. Turning open a sketchbook laid across his desk she spotted three more images where the mark was visible. Her thoughts were racing, this was impossible, as carefully as she could manage she gently tore one of the less provocative pieces from the album, this was something she definitely needed another's opinion on. 

OoOoO

He couldn't seem to concentrate on anything, he'd been so spaced out during his damn meeting this morning he'd had to excuse himself from the room. Ever since he'd been holed up in his office staring aimlessly at his computer, he had a million things to do he knew that and yet he couldn't seem to stop his thoughts from circling back to a certain blonde, and it wasn't the one he had a date scheduled with tonight either. 

No, instead of focusing on Jenn… or was it Lynn, he honestly couldn't even recall though he was sure Buffy had not only her name but an entire file made for the girl, he'd have to ask for her to refresh his memory before he took off later. In the meantime he was searching through Google for something he could take Buffy to do, the problem was he had no idea what she liked. For all he knew she could snap her damn fingers and land on top of the great pyramids of Giza, wasn't exactly something that was easy to compete with. 

Growing frustrated he slammed the laptop closed, this was useless. Of course he could just ask her what she would like to do, but knowing Buffy she would turn their "date" into some opportunity for him to bump into some other potential love interest and that was the last thing he wanted. He promised her friends, and it wasn't that he was intentionally trying to break that promise or anything but even if that's all they could be, he still wanted to take her out. Show her what it felt like to be the one his attention was focused on, and he honestly just wanted to know more about her life, about her, about who or what she was before she became whatever it was that she is, and at the end of it all if she just so happened to feel something more than he couldn't say he would be disappointed.


	3. Chapter Three

" _ Lorne! _ Are you home," Buffy yelled, walking through her friend's house. If there was anyone with any insight as to how this was possible, it was him, and she desperately needed to find some sort of answer before she met Angel back at his place after work. His first date with Brynn was this evening and she knew if she wasn't there to push him, he would probably end up just calling to cancel, and that she couldn't have. 

As much as she was finding that she enjoyed his company, it was all becoming a bit much. When all this was over, when her job was done, there was no doubt in her mind that she would miss him, but at this point it was best all around to get that ball rolling. 

" _ Lorne _ ," she shouted one more time before stomping up the spiral glass stairs to his bedroom. Sometimes she wondered how he hadn't managed to fall and snap his damn neck on the things, beautiful they were, functional they were not. 

The door to Lorne's room flew open just as her feet lifted off the last step. "For pete's sake buttercup, some of us prefer to keep our ear drums intact," he sighed, looking down to make sure he'd managed to tighten the robe he'd barely had time to slide on. 

Not giving him a chance to say anything further Buffy held the drawing out for him to see. "Do you see this," she demanded, "Is this some sort of joke, because I swear to the powers if you or Doyle are behind this little charade…" 

Snatching the parchment from her fingers, his eyes widened at the image. Of all the things he expected to see it certainly wasn't this, though he had to admit it was a thing of beauty. "Now now sugarplum, I know I am a being of many talents, but I'm afraid drawing simply isn't one of them." If possible she watched as his eyes widened even further, "Oh my," he gaped, finally seeming to put some of it together. Holding the now slightly creased paper up, he glanced over in her direction. "Just what have you been up to that I need all sorts of juicy details about?" 

Buffy growled, ignoring the playful and curious looks her friend had taken. She tapped her finger on the sketch quickly. "That! That is me... and yet... it can't be me, Lorne. That would be impossible. And wrong! And... well, a million other things that I can't even wrap my damn head around!" she snapped.

"Okay, okay. How about we just take it back a step or two and explain to me what is even happening here, hmm?" 

Buffy let out an angry breath. "Angel drew this, and several others..." she told him, telling him about the whole section of the pieces all connected to this one. Lorne's eyebrows drew upward and she pointed her finger at him. "And no! In no way has he seen me in such a state," she told him before he could even go there.

Lorne glanced at the sketch in his green hands again. "Perhaps he was just fantasizing," Lorne offered.

"Well, first of all..." she started to spiel out into the fact he wouldn't have just conjured up some of the more intimate details depicted in them, some Lorne only even knew because of one night of passing around random, hidden information amongst themselves and just a few others they were close to just out of boredom and silliness and probably some of the alcohol Doyle had brought back from another realm, and then she moved on to the fact that Angel claimed he hadn't even been there or used his gift in some time, well before he would have ever even met her. Buffy felt angry tears threatening to spill out by the end of it. "Did you do this?" she asked again.

Lorne sighed, his head tilting. "Okay, well, first of all back to you there sweetheart... first of all why would I do something like this? And secondly, how in the hell would I or anyone else somehow put images or whatever into the brain of this random man? I don't know what exactly you think I am capable of but that is not on my list of powers."

"Then... how?"

"We don't know who they chose until we do, until one of the seers get it sent to them, " he muttered. "I honestly don't know how, who or why someone could have known... well, anything. Known he'd be picked, that he'd even make a wish and when, that you would be assigned... Maybe it's not even you? Maybe it's all a coincidence." Buffy sarcastically asked if he would like further proof and he held up a hand. "That won't be necessary at this time but thank you." He sighed again, "Give me some time and I will try and figure something out about what might be going on, okay?"

OoOoO

Buffy wasn't sure what to do when she left Lorne's, her stomach felt weird, her mind racing a mile a minute... She went home for awhile to try and relax, managed a shower and made herself some food, not that she could eat more than a few bites. She'd started a little file for her Angel cabinet about this Brynn character and did a little more digging into her to make sure there weren't any bright red flags to get in the way but she could hardly concentrate on that task even. 

Winding up back in the rented studio, her eyes would flicker over to the stack of portraits that had shaken her up earlier, the sketchbooks, but she was doing her best to avoid that area of the room for now. 

Instead, Buffy walked around, taking in other pieces he had started but laid there unfinished, her fingertips danced over a wind chime hanging in the corner, her hands flipping through endless pages, or over materials just left sitting around unused all this time. 

OoOoO

With her sudden appearance, Angel's eyes seemed to twinkle as he took her in. "What if someone else was here when you did that?" he asked. 

"I can sense an area before I appear there."

"What if I was just standing around naked?" 

Buffy did her best to keep a straight face. "I can sense an area before I appear," she repeated, "I would know not to show up for one reason or another."

"Uh huh."

"How was work?" she asked, changing the subject. 

Angel shrugged. "I was distracted most of the day."

"You did have a bit of a strange weekend," she offered. 

"That would be putting it lightly," he agreed. "It was fine, though. I survived."

"And now on to the real fun and getting you ready for this evening. I hope you're feeling excited about your date."

Angel groaned a little. "Right. What's her name again?"

Buffy rolled her eyes and recited her name and just what their agreed upon plans were. "You should probably be a little more excited about these things, going in with dread or a bad attitude about it all probably isn't going to help your case. This is your wish, remember?"

He sighed, taking a seat. "I guess you're right. I don't know how else I would expect any of this to work anyway... unless you got some magic button or something? A list of who's meant to be with who or something?"

Buffy smiled a little, shaking her hair. "Sorry. If there is such I don't have access to it."

"Speaking of access... did you go to the studio? Did you have any trouble getting in? I hadn't been there in so long I was starting to worry they might have changed the system or something."

Buffy shook her head again. "N-no. It was fine." Swallowing hard she complimented him on all she had seen in there. "It feels like a big waste of talent with you not continuing your work. I think we have to figure out how to get your muse back."

"Hey, if I felt like I could accomplish anything that is where I would be but..."

Silence hung in the air for a few moments before she swallowed again. "Th-there were several depictions of a woman..."

"Right," he drawled out. 

"Wh-who is she?" Buffy asked, barely able to choke out the words. 

Angel's mouth opened then shut again. "I have no idea," he finally answered and she watched as he stood up and disappeared for a few moments. When he returned, he put several large sketchbooks down on the coffee table, flipping them open to random pages. 

Buffy's heart seemed to jump back in her throat as she saw more drawings of what had to be herself. The face was never visible and even in these before her it showed the figure in different clothes, different settings, even here in Angel's apartment... but somehow she knew it was supposed to be her. 

"Drove me crazy for the longest time," his voice came interrupting her thoughts. "That's the biggest reason as to why I stopped... I couldn't seem to make or draw or paint anything else but this woman but I can't finish them either. I think she's destined to haunt me or drive me absolutely insane," he brushed a hand through his short locks as he plopped back down on the sofa beside her, "Either way I've made peace with the fact that my artist days are done."

"Hey what's wrong," he asked, noticing the way her eyes seemed to have glassed over. If she so much as blinked a tear was sure to fall, "Look I know I'm impressive," he teased, "But I promise it's nothing worth crying over."

She couldn't believe that she was losing it in front of him like this. "It's not that," she managed, stretching the sleeves of her cardigan over her hands as she wiped at her eyes. 

Angel's brows rose, "Talk to me," he urged quietly as he reached over to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. He grinned when she tried to shake her head again, "Hey, it's not like I'll remember it a year from now right?" He tugged on her elbow until she gave in, settling back beside him on the sofa, turning to her side she let out a long sigh as her chin came to rest on his shoulder. 

Her hands tangled around his arm gripping him tight. His head tilted, she worked her lip while she tried to pretend she couldn't see him looking at her out the corner of his eye. She hadn't come back here with the intention of telling him any of this, at least not until she'd had the chance to figure out what it all meant herself, but here she was getting sucked in by those dark eyes that made her feel a bit like she was drowning. 

He watched her mouth open and close a few times as though she couldn't figure out where to begin. "What if I said I had something to tell you." 

Angel chuckled, "Well," he drawled, "I'd probably tell you I figured that out already." 

She made a point of sticking her lips out into a pout, she wasn't sure how but he seemed to have a way of making the big things seem not so big, like no matter the problem he would figure out a way to solve it. Though she wasn't sure even he would have an answer to the bomb she was about to drop. 

Rolling her eyes, she stretched across to reach the sketch book still residing on the table, sitting it across his lap she flipped it open until an image of two hands clasped came into view. She pointed to the lovers hands, you couldn't even see much farther than where their wrist began, but the way their fingers were intertwined gave way to an intimacy that was undeniable, especially when the hands in question were such familiar subjects. 

"What do you see," she questioned pointing to the page. 

His forehead creased, "Uh," this had to be some sort of trick question. 

Lacing her fingers with his, she mimicked the position of his drawing with their hands. She swallowed hard, "What do you see now?" 

His thumb brushed across her own, he still wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to be looking at here. Not that he minded the excuse to hold her hand, but he just wasn't getting her point here. That was until he turned her hand over and caught sight of the small scar just below her forefinger. His eyes bounced back to hers, it couldn't be, it wasn't possible, although his realm of possibilities had been infinitely stretched since she appeared in his life.

"How?" He had to admit, there were feelings of betrayal swirling inside of him. It was one thing to accept the fact that she could randomly pop in and out of his life whenever she saw fit, it was another thing entirely for her to be invading his subconscious for years on end. 

Flinching at the harshness of his tone, he watched as her shoulders slumped, "I - I don't know," she sighed. "This isn't normal," she stumbled, "I mean, this isn't something that we do. Like I explained before, we have no ties to the people we're assigned." Her eyes began to fill with tears all over again, "I swear Angel, I was just as shocked as you are." 

A tense silence filled the room, not for the first time this girl was causing his head to spin. "So you weren't, I mean you've never," he cleared his throat, untangling their hands, he ran one through his hair as he tried to get some kind of hold on himself. "I mean, you weren't like a part of the dreams right?" 

"Dreams," Buffy echoed, her voice far higher than she'd intended. Angel nodded, and she could almost swear she saw blush creeping over the ever so stoic man. "What-What kind of dreams?" 

Angel smirked, "What kind do you think?" 

Feeling her own face beginning to burn she looked down to her lap. "Ohh," she whispered, suddenly very invested in the lint on her leggings, she tried to busy herself by picking at the imaginary fibers. 

"And you're sure," Angel pressed, "That it's you I mean," he nodded towards the sketchbook that once again resided on the small table in front of them. "In the rest of them." 

She let out a long breath, "I think so. I wasn't sure at first either, but the more of them I saw, the more I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something familiar about her. Then I saw the birthmark, and it just clicked I guess." 

"You-you have the same birthmark too?" 

She nodded, "That was kinda the aha moment 'cause as much as I'd like to think otherwise right now, I just don't see me having some mysterious dream invading doppelganger out there." 

"And you really have no idea what any of this means?" 

Her teeth rolled over her lip in that way that he couldn't help but find adorable. "I even went to Lorne, he's umm one of my less human friends," she explained, "Anyway, his connections to the powers is a bit more extensive than mine, but even he didn't have any ideas, not off the top of his head anyway." 

Boy this was not an easy conversation to have, but she had to do it, she had to tell him, even if it meant suffering the consequences for it later. She couldn't keep something like this from him after he'd been so open and trusting with her, it just didn't feel right. "Look how about I talk to one of my friends, we all owe each other a few favors, maybe one of them wouldn't mind taking over for me." 

Angel's head shot up, "What," he gasped, "Why? Buffy I swear, I told you I gave up on this a while ago. I would never do anything to make you uncomfortable." 

"Angel no," her hand went back to his, "This isn't about that, I just figured you might be more comfortable, you know, without having to deal with me hanging around all the time." 

"But I like you hanging around, and now that you've helped bring closure to that mystery, I can only feel more confident in your ability to help me with other aspects of my life," he told her softly. "I may not understand any of what happened with those drawings but, I mean, i-it doesn't change anything. Does it?" He wasn't entirely sure that was very truthful as his mind was absolutely reeling but he knew he didn't want her to disappear on him. Swallowing, he cautiously asked if she were okay with still being in this with him given all this new and strange information. He knew he'd understand if she wanted to go running for the hills but he hoped that wouldn't be the case.

Buffy blushed a little, looking anywhere but at his face as she thought that over. He couldn't help but worry this might be too much for her as well, feeling pretty sure she was even more confused than he was right about now, and was far from used to some random wish making guy knowing far too intimate details about her and everything. 

"I'll be alright," she finally spoke. "Hopefully someone will have answers about the whole situation but... but there is still a job at hand and I'm happy to continue trying to help you get that happily ever after out there... which," she cleared her throat, "you do still have a date to be getting ready for, don't you?"

His mind blanked for a moment, forgetting completely about this morning. before absently nodding his head. Going out with anyone right now was the last thing he wanted to do to be quite honest but he knew he'd made a deal with her about such, plus the fact he figured she'd freak out if he backed out on it and that was the last thing needed.

OoOoO

As he had expected, Angel was not enjoying himself one bit, he couldn't follow along the conversation for the life of him. He was thankful that his date didn't seem to notice, or perhaps just not care, and she carried on while he would mumble a "Oh, really?" "Uh huh." or something along those lines every now and again. Hell, he could hardly even eat more than a few bites.

His thoughts were completely locked in on Buffy as they sat there. He certainly didn't want to tell her it, but he kept coming back around to that there had to be a reason something like this happened. For years he had been haunted by images of her... there had to be more to it than pure coincidence. There just had to be. 

He had joked with her before and he had wondered probably more than he should have been about what if it was her, what if she was the answer to his wish. He was sure they had rules about such for good reason, I mean a human such as himself with... well, whatever she was supposed to be probably wasn't exactly "natural" for one thing... it didn't stop his mind from going there and picturing what that could be like. 

Now that there was the fact that he had somehow known about her long before he was supposed to, in ways he absolutely shouldn't, it only seemed to drive him deeper into those type of thoughts.

He had imagined himself with that "mystery woman" for years... in dreams and daydreams, of just being around her, being out on dates, in bed... making memories... and now he had a face, a person to actually put it all together and it was like he could bring up an old image from one of those dreams in his mind or look at a sketch and just picture it with surround sound or something. 

He felt a little uneasy when it came to some of those dreams, the more intimate portraits he'd created now. It hadn't stopped or harmed his lusty feelings toward her any, but he also felt like he had violated her privacy without intent to do such a thing. 

It was all just a lot to take in and try to understand. 

OoOoO

Buffy's stomach felt strange, she checked her watch then also the large clock hanging on the side wall of his living room for probably the hundredth time. Shaking her hands out a few times, she paced around the apartment with her mind trying to come up with some kind of answer as to why Angel had been having dreams about her and drawing an endless supply of drawings of her for years while she had no idea about it, or about him, this whole time.

Looking at the time yet again, she let out a deep, slow breath and went back to the pile of sketches. Taking a seat, she brought the notepads and sketchbooks into her lap and looked over them again, page by page. All were nameless, faceless, but were her... sometimes the two of them together and each looked incredibly beautiful. She could almost imagine them come to life as she stared, how she would be laughing at something he said, imagining herself cleaning off the dishes in one that had her standing in front of his kitchen sink and her head starting to turn back around to look behind her... turning the page her breath hitched at one sketch of the two of them entangled up together on his bed and for a moment she wondered what that too would be like before slamming the book shut and hurrying to push it away from her. 

"Stop!" she commanded out loud to herself. 

Standing back up quickly, she nearly yelped loud enough for the whole building to hear when she turned to find herself face to face with Angel, who she hadn't even heard come in or return apparently. "H-hi, h-how did things go?" she struggled to get out. 

Angel shrugged. "Don't think there was much sparkage by either of us."

"Oh," she replied, wondering where that stab of relief had come from. "W-well, do you want to talk about it? Maybe go over high and low points, what you did enjoy about her and about the date so we can use that to maybe help next time?" 

Angel shook his head at that. "Nah."

"Okay, well... we can always try again tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan. And don't forget you owe me a date, too," he said and she felt her eyes widened. "A friend date. Outing," he quickly followed up with. 

"Right," she said slowly. "Well, um, whatever you want to do..."

OoOoO

Crawling into bed, Angel hooked one arm behind his head and looked up at the ceiling replaying how awkward things had been with Buffy before she took off for the evening. He didn't have to guess hard as to why but he didn't like it all the same. 

He still wasn't sure what he was going to do for their "date" either. He had been toying with the idea of following along with his dates with these potential mates, take one to dinner then her out for a picnic perhaps, perhaps a hockey game date followed by his day out with her where they could hit the beach, maybe swing by the little cafe she'd commented on when they drove into his office the other day. 

He was hoping after a little bit of time and some fun he'd be able to coax her out of all the awkwardness she was feeling. It was definitely going to be an uphill battle, but it was one he refused to lose, one way or another he was determined to get this whole mess squared away and behind them. 

OoOoO

Not sure how much time had passed he groaned glancing at the clock, mentally he calculated the amount of sleep he would get if he fell asleep right then. Rolling over he continued to toss and turn, flipping from his stomach to his side and back again, he honestly wasn't even sure why he was trying anymore, it was useless. Every single time he let his thoughts go, let his mind drift to that place he went just before sleep claimed him she would appear again. He couldn't count the number of times he'd forced her from his mind. 

There was no secret to the fact that he'd been attracted to her pretty much from the moment she first poofed her way into his life, but everything was different now. Before he had no problems letting himself get lost in the little fantasies his brain insisted on conjuring up, but now it all just felt so fucking wrong, and at the same time it felt like exactly what he was supposed to be doing. 

He wasn't the easiest person to get to know, he knew that, he was private, some might say egotistical, and it wasn't often that he let people in. Not a saint by any means, his bed was no stranger to women, but it was connections outside of that he had issues with, and yet somehow he felt her wedging her way into his life without any idea how to stop it. Still didn't make him imagining her in any of the ways his head kept coming up with any less wrong though. 

Letting out a long huff, he thought, not for the first time that she really should be equipped with a cell phone. He had even brought it up once or twice but she quickly shot the idea down, reminding him that he was pretty much the only person on the entire mortal plain that currently remembered who she was. That bitter reminder had instantly caused him to drop the subject, the last thing he wanted to think about was a future where she didn't exist. Plus, she promised him that if he ever needed her she would get the message one way or another.

Squeezing his eyes closed, he silently repeated her name as though he was stuck in the Wizard of Oz or some other bullshit. Realizing how absolutely ridiculous he probably looked, trying to summon his fairy god mother who just happened to have the body of a fucking goddess, he tossed the comforter off. All of the sudden the air around him was stifling, he'd just begun to swing his legs over the side of his bed, hoping that turning down the thermostat may help turn down his libido when he heard something at the foot of the bed. 

Buffy's hand shot first to cover her mouth, then her eyes, before spinning on her heel to face the wall. "Why would you call me when you're all," she stumbled, "naked." 

Angel chuckled, looked like her whole little call her and she will come thing worked after all. "I'm not naked," he clarified, "And for the record, I wasn't sure if the whole  _ calling _ you thing was even going to work." He grabbed the blanket, pulling it back across his waist, propped up against the bed he smirked, clearly she hadn't been expecting to come back so soon either. That is unless pug pajamas were a new fashion trend he hadn't been made aware of, not that she wasn't adorable all the same. 

Turning back around, she watched Angel make room for her beside him on the bed. She wasn't sure why, but she could feel her heart thundering away, and she was more than a little glad the lights had already been dimmed, she just knew her face must match the crimson of his sheets. "This is a terrible idea," she mumbled, but her own feet betrayed her, slowly inching closer until she found herself sitting on the edge of the plush mattress. 

"I'm sorry."

He sure did apologize a lot for someone that didn't do anything wrong. "Is that why you called me back," she grinned, " 'Cause we kinda already established that remember?" 

"I meant for calling you back here," he sighed slowly, "And for everything else."

Without thinking she reached out and laced her fingers with his, "Angel I already told you, the drawings, the dreams, none of it's your fault. If anything, all that stuff probably falls more on me, I mean in case you've forgotten happiness and destinies is sort of my department." 

She tried to ignore the pattern his thumb was tracing on her palm as he spoke. She was pretty sure he was apologizing, or explaining why he felt the need to apologize, but either way she was finding it incredibly hard to concentrate. It should totally be illegal to be that enamored with someone's arms.

"I just couldn't leave things the way we did earlier, I never want you to feel awkward or uncomfortable, not around me."

She'd barely managed to make it through the day without embarrassing herself, and if you counted Angel sneaking up on her looking through his drawings she hadn't even fully succeeded in that aspect. Shifting around she pulled her legs under her as she scooted just a little closer to the warmth he was radiating. When she heard his call come through, she had half the mind to ignore it, but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't bring herself too.

"I'm not uncomfortable. Trust me, you're not the first client I've had ring me in the night," she leaned in a little closer, "But you know what," she teased, trying to stifle her grin. 

"What," he whispered, fighting with everything inside of him, wanting nothing more than to close the small space between them. 

Her smile grew wide, "You're the only one to ever have the pleasure of seeing me in my favorite jammies." 

Angel chuckled, she had some innate ability to make him laugh, a feat not many could accomplish. She really was his definition of perfection, and just as his luck would have it, completely off limits. He could still feel it though, he didn't have a word for what it was, but it was there. It almost felt like some electrical charge pulsing between them, at first he ignored it, chalking it up to her being some mystical type of being or whatever, but those feelings only seemed to be growing more intense, especially now that they had figured out she was one behind his muse all these years. 

Angel allowed himself a few drawn out moments of just getting lost in everything she was before smiling softly. "So, are you sure that we're okay?" he asked her. 

Buffy nodded, matching his smile with one of her own. "I'm sure that there's some logical reason for everything going on," she said, trying to brush it off. Truthfully she couldn't come up with a single train of reasoning that made any sense whatsoever to her about why Angel would have been having visions, dreams, or whatever else about her for years prior and now here she was, and for the first time in a long while she felt just truly, utterly thrown by something. And not once had anything like this ever happened, or ever happened as far as she knew. 

There had to be a reason, though.She just wasn't entirely sure she was going to like the answer to all the hows and whys the more she thought about it. 

"Just don't worry too much about it," she told him, patting his hand. "We have bigger fish to fry when it comes to finding you a perfect match."

Not for the first time since laying eyes on her, Angel wondered if he hadn't already found that exact someone but he kept his mouth shut, simply nodding his head before they said another round of goodbyes and goodnights and confirmed once more their plans to see one another come morning. He prayed sleep would come easier now with his mind a little less clouded.


	4. Chapter Four

"Stop that," Angel said from behind her, making Buffy nearly jump out of her skin. 

" _ Jesus Christ _ , Angel," she said back to him, hitting at his shoulder lightly when he took a seat back down beside her. 

"Hey, don't act like I didn't see those pretty eyes of yours scanning the place for someone to hook me up with. And I'm pretty sure you and I have an agreement about these little outings of ours about it being a break from all this matchmaking business..." he continued on.

Rolling her eyes, her hand waved him off for a moment. "What can I say? I'm not good at downtime. I like to stay busy and focused."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he drawled, quick to remind her that brain breaks were important, too, of their agreements regarding these little friend dates, and the fact somehow she'd gotten him set up with two different girls already today for different days this week. When discussing the terms of these little outings together he'd told her he didn't mind discussing the whole business of him trying to find a happy ending at the end of the rainbow and everything but he didn't want it to be taking over the entire time and he didn't want her scouting out women for him the entire time.

He had to admit she did seem a little less on edge today but then again she wasn't exactly used to just hanging out in the park having lunch with a human friend either so he let it slide when awkwardness seemed to take over and she reverted into the job. 

"Okay, so, since you stated you don't get an over amount of time to do whatever it is you wish to do... tell me more about those things you miss out on and do enjoy when you get a chance," he encouraged, directing the conversation along.

OoOoO

Buffy sighed, her pen busily being bounced up and down against the blank page of her notebook. "Doyle?"

"Yes, Love?" He asked, his head turning around until he spotted her and came to stand by her little table at the shop. 

She propped her elbow up on the table and rested her chin in her palm as she looked over at him. "What are your favorite things to do out there when you're around the humans? Or, what are some things you wish you could do out there in the world... you know, just because?"

Without missing a beat or needing to think about it, Doyle quickly started sprouting off one thing after another and only stopped when he noticed Buffy's eyes getting bigger and bigger. "What?" 

"I don't know, I guess... I guess I just don't think about stuff like that. My latest charge is full of weirdness - not in a bad way necessarily - and surprises. He has this whole idea about us being friends while we work on his happy ending... and he told me to make a list of some things I might want to do or places to go to around everything else and I was having a hard time coming up with anything and here you are..."

Doyle shrugged. "Really? You never see a roller coaster going at top speed, hear the screams and laughs and wonder what that's like? Or better, just say the hell with it and go try it out? Never hear about a movie and want to just take a couple hours and go sit in a theater and pretend to be part of the other side? Never wanted to just go hike a state park or go just do something for the hell of it and have some fun?"

Buffy thought more about it for a moment. "I mean, I guess some things I've done and probably longed for without really paying attention. It's just throwing me maybe. Probably because of the fact he wants to go do all these things and everything just feels out of place then."

Doyle was also silent for a moment before his eyes narrowed as he looked her over. "So he wants to be 'friends' with ya, huh?"

"It's really weird, isn't it?" Buffy grimaced.

He shrugged again. "Stranger things have happened. We've all swapped weirdo stories over the years, you know that. Just be careful..."

'I'm trying...' Buffy thought. She also thought about cluing him in on all the other mess of things going on with Angel but decided against it for now, hoping Lorne would be back around soon, and hopefully with some much needed answers to ease her worrying mind.

OoOoO

"I have a perfect activity planned for us to do on our next little friends day out," Buffy announced mere seconds after manifesting, nearly smack dab in the middle of hallway, and he thought she should feel lucky he hadn't bulldozed her over. "Though your next date isn't for another couple of days so that is a bit of downer."

"Buffy, you do know that us doing something together isn't  _ only _ allowed during those times, right?" he asked, his heart feeling like it was sinking into his stomach a little when she seemed to pause, taking that in. She had once made a comment about how those who'd made wishes such as his own rarely spent time with her outside of the call of duty and that circled around his brain a lot lately.

"We could do one of those paint night things! And see if we can't get you back into that studio of yours, hopefully now moved on from only being able to doodle out images of me, and back to doing things that you love."

He gave her one of those famous little half smiles of his, "Like the ones with wine?" He'd heard of them a time or two, though he had to admit he hadn't really looked into it. Though he was pretty sure he'd agree to prancing around in a tutu if it got her this excited. 

"Uh huh, I think they call it painting with a twist," she nodded enthusiastically. She couldn't believe her luck when she stumbled across the ad for it while she was browsing aimlessly online for something she might like to do. So it wasn't necessarily something she'd always dreamt of, but it still sounded fun, she knew Angel would enjoy it, plus it might give her some more insight into something to help her get her job done. 

"Let's go tonight." 

"Tonight," she echoed, following him the rest of the way into his room. Making herself at home she hopped up onto his bed, crossing her legs she took a seat in the middle of the rumpled covers notepad in hand. 

Angel shrugged "Why not?"

Peeling the sweat soaked tank top off he tossed in his laundry bin. He'd spent some much needed time in the gym this morning, between this whole new dating business, work, and all the time he'd been spending with her, he hadn't been able to find much for himself. Not that he minded, well not the parts spent with her anyway. 

He pretended not to notice the way her gaze raked over his half nude form, and tried his best not to let his own body respond to the confirmation. Her pen knocking faster against the notebook in her lap, he could see the slightest blush forming on her cheeks. It was moments like these that he had to bite back the urge to find out just what that pout of hers tasted like.

She could feel the air surrounding them shift, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she'd noticed it happening more and more frequently. It was like someone dialed up the thermostat, she cleared her throat, "Are you sure you want to spend your Sunday night with me?"

Taking a few steps, Angel closed the distance between himself and the bed. Even with her perched high on top his mattress he still towered over her, reaching out he gently tugged on the little green notebook until she let go. "As long as we can leave all this here," he smirked, tossing the tablet on top of his nightstand. She was just inches from him now, it would be easy to lean forward… he turned away, not waiting for her to respond, "I'm going to take a quick shower, I'll be out in a few. Why don't you call and try to get us a reservation or whatever it is that we'll need?"

Her mouth hung slightly agape, she could feel small tingles traveling throughout her entire body, it was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. Shaking her head slightly, she nodded, watching him disappear through the bathroom door. 

'Oh boy.'

OoOoO

Buffy looked at what was supposed to be a tree on the canvas in front of her, then glanced beside her at the masterpiece Angel had created. Who knew painting a stupid tree could be so freaking hard. "Don’t laugh," she pouted, spotting the sly grin of his. "Not all of us can be Picassos around here." 

Angel chuckled, abandoning his brush, he came up behind her, "It's not… terrible," he grimaced, and she quickly jabbed him with her elbow. "Ow," he teased, then took a step closer behind her. "It can still be fixed." 

Feeling him come up behind her, she tried to keep her breath steady as he pressed his body against her. One hand wrapped around her waist holding her close, as the other slid along her arm to guide her movements with the brush. "Relax," he whispered against her, using his hand to tilt her own he moved her brush against the painting. 

She couldn't believe it, it was like magic, the scribbles in front of her slowly started to come to life, suddenly the juvenile lines seemed to be so much more. Relaxing further into him, she let out a little sigh as he continued to walk her through step by step. In all honesty she probably wouldn't even be able to recall what he said but it didn't matter, she was pretty sure she could stay like that forever. 

Eventually, once her tree was looking more like, well, a tree and less like a giant blob, Angel went back to his own painting but with every new step he would stop and come back over to help her. By the time they were finished everyone in the room, the instructor included was gushing over Angel’s portrait. 

" _ Lisa  _ seemed pretty into you," Buffy teased once they reached the confines of his car. She had to say, she was glad that he'd suggested to go ahead with this tonight, it was nice to get her mind off work even if it was for just a short while. 

"Who," Angel asked, instinctively lacing his hand with hers once he navigated the parking lot and pulled back onto the road. 

"Tall, blonde, fake boobs, everyday hollywood variety," she trailed off at his blank blank expression, either he was really that oblivious or he was doing a damn good job at pretending not to notice the tramp who was practically salivating at his feet. "The one who asked you for private lessons," she clarified. 

Angel tried to fight off the grin he felt trying to take over, he was damn near positive he was sensing a little jealousy there. His hand squeezed hers a little tighter, "I thought we were hanging off the clock tonight." 

"Right," Buffy nodded, "I mean we are, I was just saying, she seemed pretty into you, and you both have the whole art thing in common, might be worth it to see where it goes." She swallowed, not sure why this suddenly felt so difficult. Why images of Angel with the play boy bunny wannabe back there wouldn't quit dancing through her mind, why it all was bothering her so much in the first place. This was what she was here to do, this was her job, even if she was taking the night off or whatever, her ultimate goal was still to help find his happiness, and if that happiness ended up being with some plastic skank then it was just something she was going to have to accept. 

"Hey whatever happened to you bringing me something back from your place," It was a weak attempt, but the last thing he wanted to do was think about any woman besides her right now. 

"Oh ya," she smiled, "Be right back."

Before he even had the chance to respond she'd completely vanished, then less than a minute later she reappeared as though she never left. "I'm pretty sure that's something I'll never get used too." 

She grinned, then reached inside her back pocket to pull out the tiny object she'd snagged off her desk a few nights back. Holding her hand out, Buffy told him she had been meaning to bring this with her but kept forgetting. Angel raised an eyebrow, his eyes glancing quickly at her and then at the small key she held before picking it up from her palm. "You didn't specify what you wanted and nothing really ever struck me as some perfect thing to give you so..." she trailed off, "I just kept coming back to something small and magical."

He held the key closer to his face, able to inspect it better as they came to a stop at a four way. "And here I was hoping you were giving me a key to your place."

Buffy rolled her eyes at him. "The key can unlock any door that you, yourself, has locked previously. So, again, nothing too fancy but it is something from my world and I had around my house not really being used." 

"Hmm, well, it could come in handy. Once upon a time I did work at a bank, you know," he joked and she swatted at his shoulder.

"There will be absolutely none of that! Don't make me have to take it back away from you."

"Hey, there is no take backs around here! It's mine now."

"Uh huh, well you better not start trying to use things for evil then hmm." He shot her a big smile and drew out an x over his heart. "Now, that we've got that bit of business out of the way... what about that Lisa situation?"

Angel mentally groaned but shrugged outward. "I mean, I did say I will go out with anyone of your choice but that one is really barking up the wrong tree."

She fought hard against the smile wanting to take over her face. "Alright, well then we just keep looking..." she trailed off but thankfully the subject was dropped the rest of the ride back to his apartment. 

OoOoO

Angel was just starting to pull out their portraits as she came around to his side of the car, before she could even say anything, he was asking if he could keep hers. It stunned her for just a moment and she shrugged, "Only if it's a trade and I get yours," she managed to quip. 

He scooted the one he'd done on his own closer to her. "Alright. Deal."

"Thank you.. you know, for tonight. Even if I was absolutely terrible at the whole thing, it was fun and I really did enjoy myself." Her eyes met his as her fingertips reached out for it and, not for the first time, it felt like all the air wanted to shove its way out of her lungs in one big swoop. Feeling her face getting hotter by the second, "I'm gonna-I'll go ahead and put this up, be back in just a few, okay?" Smiling quickly, she was gone from his sight just as his mouth had started to open to respond to that.

Finding herself standing in the middle of her living room, Buffy let out a slow, deep breath. "You're going to have to get it together, woman," she whispered out loud to herself. She smiled despite this however, remembering how he had done his best to help her tonight, how normal the whole evening almost felt... Shaking her head, she picked the canvas up as she started walking off to find some supplies to hanging this thing up and to find a perfect place for it.

OoOoO

"Only after I was already gone did I realize how late it actually is, I could have just bid you goodnight earlier," Buffy said when she popped back up in his apartment. 

Angel flipped the laptop he was busy at around so she could see the screen that had a pizza place pulled up. "Well, I'm glad you didn't because otherwise how would I convince you to stay and have a late dinner with me? Now, get over here and add whatever you want to this order while I try and see if there's anything interesting to watch playing."

"I found a perfect spot for your newest piece of work," she mentioned as they crossed paths, :It's sitting nicely on an otherwise empty wall near my little breakfast nook. Hint, hint. I think I need some more original work from the artist to help spruce things up."

Angel shrugged. "I guess we will see," he told her. To be honest he had enjoyed tonight, for more than one reason with how close he got to be to the pretty blonde standing a few feet away and knowing she had fun doing it, but it also felt nice to create something again even if it was just participating in a paint together class. Sometimes he truly did seem to forget how much he had loved life as an artist, how it was a nice escape and way to express himself, how fun it even could be. 

Buffy's secondary goal that she seemed to have taken on to get him back in the studio and at the moment he felt it was the more achievable of the two. 

"Did I tell you I tested out that key of yours when I got up here?"

"You didn't. Did it work?"

"Yeah. I also tried it on one of my filing cabinets. Tomorrow I know what I will be wasting time with at work."

OoOoO

Finding herself about to drift off for the third time, Buffy forced herself back into a sitting position on the sofa and stretched. "I think I had best head home before I wind up having a sleepover here on your couch." She had been trying hard to make it through to the end of the movie he'd put on for them to enjoy along with the pizza but that just wasn't going to happen. 

Angel shrugged. "Worst things have happened."

She chuckled, reaching down to grab her shoes to slip them back on. "And you do have work in the morning, in case you have forgotten. I believe you mentioned an early meeting awaiting you first thing in the morning."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. He was feeling his own need to get some rest but hated the idea of her leaving, even if he knew they'd be back together in the morning for coffee and scoping out more potential dating options for him. 

He watched her stand and make her way back toward his bedroom before returning, her little notebook back in her hand. "I'll see you in the morning."

OoOoO

Tired as he was, Angel found himself unable to actually stay asleep. He would finally drift off but then feel like he was jolted awake. Enough times of it, he sat up in the bed, rubbing his tired eyes before they drifted off to the painting Buffy had done tonight. Every time he would manage to fade off into oblivion he kept picturing her tonight, how she had felt in his arms, every little detail playing out in his mind as if she were still right there with him. 

Forcing his legs off the side of the bed, he let out a haggard breath tossing the covers off to the side. Something had to give, falling asleep every night was quickly becoming a losing battle, and it wasn't as though he wasn't aware of the cause, he just couldn't quite figure out a solution. She was hell bent on setting him up with every woman that crossed his path, and yet he couldn't help but see the relief in her eyes everytime he shot down one of her recommendations or came back less than impressed. 

At this point the only reason he was even entertaining this whole mess of an idea was to keep her happy, he'd tried to keep an open mind, to stay open to the possibility that he might find himself falling head over heels with Jane from the coffee shop, or whoever she conjured up for him, but he couldn't keep lying to himself. There was absolutely no room in his mind for any other woman when she was already taking up all of his thoughts. 

None of it made any damn sense and the more he thought about it the more it all made his head spin. If he was expected to believe in fairy godmothers, and magic, then surely fate wasn't such a stretch, and if that was the case then there had to be some explanation behind her showing up inside his mind then poofing into his life years later. 

Too bad he couldn't even figure out a way to get her to entertain the idea, every time he tried to bring it up she quickly shut him down with the whole list of rules they were bound to follow. What he didn't know was what happened if they said to hell with the rules, how were these powers that be people supposed to find out to begin with, he wasn't going to tell them shit, he didn't suspect she would, and unless they had some seriously kinky fascination with his private life then he couldn't much imagine them finding out themselves. 

The problem was convincing her of such, whoever or better yet whatever her bosses were had some sort of hold over her that he just didn't understand. He glanced at the clock, he had half the mind just to blow his day off, meet up with her tomorrow and lay it all out on the table, then spend the rest of the afternoon showing her what it was really like to be swept off her feet. 

OoOoO

Just like he knew it would, his alarm started blaring what felt like mere minutes after he'd finally managed to fall asleep. His hand shot out to rummage over the small table next to his bed until he found the wretched device, sliding his thumb across the screen he quickly dismissed the rest of his alarms. 

"You know you have to actually get out of bed if we're gonna go for coffee."

Buffy grinned from where she'd just materialized in his room, if she had learned anything it was that mornings definitely weren't his thing. She all but skipped to where he was lying, his arm curled around the pillow half under his chest. "Rough night?" 

Angel groaned then scooted over leaving her just enough room to sit down beside him. "Mornings looking better," he smirked once she had settled into the space next to him. She made sure to leave a few inches between them, but she was close enough the he could feel the heat radiating off her, he was quickly coming to learn that being this close to her was a special kind of torture. 

She really had to stop popping in on him before he had the chance to get ready for the day she thought when she caught herself admiring his tattoo again, there was absolutely no reason a man's back should be anywhere close to that attractive. She poked at his bare side, "Come on, the more time you spend in bed the less time you get to spend with me before your boring ol' meeting this morning." 

He couldn't help it, she'd walked her pretty little self right into it, with lightning speed he reached out, securing one of his arms around her waist he tugged her down onto the warm bed beside him. "Or I could just spend my time in bed with you," he suggested softly, keeping his arm firmly locked around her. 

She turned her head ready to let some sassy retort fly from her mouth, but whatever she'd been about to say died in her throat when she realized just how close they actually were. Her nose nearly touching his, she could feel his warm breath on her lips. The world seemed to tilt again, drowning out everything except for the feel of his strong body beside her. Alarm bells blared inside her head, this was definitely uncharted territory, she knew she should pull away, jump from his bed, snap herself back to the safety of her own living room, something, but despite the pounding inside her chest she just couldn't bring herself to move.

Utterly frozen, she watched in slow motion as his lashes slowly opened, she saw his eyes darken as he too noticed their close proximity. She felt his dark depths drinking her in, pulling her even closer, he closed all the distance that remained between them. Hovering above her, he whispered her name in what felt like one last ditch effort to give her a moment to pull away. Which she had every intention to do, any second now she was going to push him away, they would laugh, she would make some excuse to run out of here and meet him at the cafe where they would be around dozens of others and there was absolutely no possibility of them ending up back like this. Those had been her plan at least, but then she blinked and everything changed. 

He moved with an achingly slow pace, knowing he was crossing a line that he knew they couldn't back from, he wanted to savor every single moment just in case he never got her here again. Taking one final breath he forced air into his lungs, trembling, his hand found its way to her neck, his fingers gently tangling in the soft hair at the base of her ponytail, he let the rest of the world fade away as he softly touched his lips to hers. 

Her hands betraying her, instead of shoving him away she found herself pulling him closer, an overwhelming warmth encompassed her and suddenly it wasn't enough. She needed more, even if she wasn't exactly sure what more was. Something akin to a whimper escaped her, and as if in response she felt Angels tongue slipping past her lips. Everything that she had witnessed in her many years helping others find their happiness took on a whole new meaning. So many times she had found herself questioning the hows and the whys of the couples she had helped to create, never fully understanding the connection such an intimate act could invoke. 

Far from inexperienced, he tried to ignore the rush of need that slammed into him. He found such a task nearly impossible though, unsure as to how one single creature could feel this damn heavenly. She was just as he had imagined countless times over in those far too realistic dreams that would plague him or those endless strings of thoughts he would find himself carried away in when his mind would wander, and yet she was so much more than those makeshift images, lying here in his bed, so perfectly under him. 

Buffy was just as soft and her body as warm as he expected her to be, in fact it almost felt like she was glowing against him, her small hands roaming as far as she could reach... She pulled at his shoulder blades to drag him closer to her, gripped his neck or teased at the back of his head, slipped around to slide them over his chest before repeating it all over again, like she couldn't figure out what she was supposed to be doing here.

Which, he assumed, she more than likely didn't... which could do nothing but turn him on more.

And yet, even if she didn't, she easily matched him at every turn, her tongue dancing against his once the surprise faded off a bit, taking a quick breath when they would break apart for just a second or two. She tasted sweet but not in an overpowering way, and while he felt he knew what it reminded him of, he just couldn't seem to place in amongst everything going on. He was sure it would drive him crazy soon enough trying to put a finger on it.

Every little noise that she made only drove him more crazy. It was like she was doing her best to keep quiet but just couldn't manage it any longer each time. He was sure if he had opened his eyes, he would have seen her blushing every single time one of those low whimpering sounds or whispered moans barely filled the air around them. 

Angel kept waiting for her to suddenly shriek or push against him, disappear in a blink of an eye, but the longer she remained, the more he wondered if they couldn't just stay like this forever. He knew he'd have zero complaints if that was what the rest of his life was to look like. Hell, had he known better, that would have been his damn wish back on his birthday that set all of this off. 

OoOoO

Buffy felt like she was drowning... but... in a good way? Every moment that passed by felt like a new wave crashing against her, dragging her under the surface, making it more and more impossible to come back to her senses. They were there, trying to claw at her, but she just kept mentally promising another minute more... until only the Powers knew how long had passed. 

Her entire being felt like it was ready to burst into flames, every inch of her warm and tingling, aching for him, for more. 

Slowly inching along, Buffy's legs propped up to the sides of him better, allowing him more room. He took the hint, moving slightly closer to her, a heaviness pressing against her center that took her a moment to realize what was. But, when she did, she gasped, breaking their kiss for the first time, at least for longer than a matter of seconds to try and breathe. Panicked now, and panting, her wide eyes met his as they slowly opened, dark and cloudy, sending a shiver down her spine. He tried to say her name but she cut him off halfway through it. "We c-can't be doing... this," she panted out. 

"Why not?" he asked, his tone husky, making the little hairs on her arms stand up. 

Inside her head she repeated his question, the voice in there going higher and higher each time but she just shook her head at him "Y-you need to go to work and I... I need to go," she rushed out. Again he tried to say her name but she was already gone, moments later falling, rather ungracefully, back into her own bed with a bounce. Not her finest teleport but her head, and the rest of her, were a straight fucking disaster so she couldn't really concentrate long enough for anything better than this.

Swallowing hard, her eyes looked around her familiar space, trying to calm her racing heart and shaking hands. She tried to explain to herself what had just happened, the how's and why's, but it seemed like a blur now. 

Thinking back to it didn't help other matters either, her hand coming up to touch her swollen lips, still tasting him on her. 

Hearing a sudden knock on her door, Buffy practically jumped halfway up to the ceiling. Doing her best to hide any hint of the bizarre morning from whoever, she slowly made her way to the door, opening it only to find a way too amused looking Doyle on the other side. 

"H-hi, Doyle," she tried to greet as normal as possible. "What are you doing here?"

His dark eyebrows raised as he squinted, looking her up and down. "Have you been up to no good, Buffy Summers?"


	5. Chapter Five

Angel suddenly felt more alone than he could remember in a long while. She vanished before he could try and reason with her, beg her to stay, go over the endless list of thoughts and possibilities he'd had floating around his head last night when he couldn't seem to fall asleep. His bed suddenly felt cold, giving up his bracing stance, he fell right down to the sheets and pillow where she had just been, closing his eyes, trying to reimagine her presence, wishing her to return to him.

There was absolutely no regret in him for what he had done, but there was worry. Worry that he had pushed too much, scared her off, gotten her in trouble somehow with her higher ups who seemed to take big issue in things like this. Worry that she would insist he was a lost cause with all his hang ups about her, and the Powers That Be up and deciding to erase her from his memory now, giving up on his wish making fate, or they'd replace her, or a million other things. 

The idea of never seeing her again made his heart lurch in his chest, his stomach wanting to spill all its contents everywhere. It being in the cards for a year from now was hard enough, the idea that today might be an early exit was too damn much to deal with. 

Flipping over to his back, he let one hand fall over his face, his eyes glancing over at his long forgotten clock before he groaned. If he jumped up now he figured he could make it across town to work without a hitch but he was sure absolutely nothing would get done. 

Deciding he would call in, he closed his eyes trying to decide whether he should feign some sort of sickness or come up with another plan. But even that turned out to be too difficult, distracted by memories of the beautiful blonde whose scent still surrounded him, he picked up his phone and sent a quick text letting everyone who needed to know, know that he'd had an emergency come up and he wouldn't be in today, as soon as the message went through he hit the power button on his phone. 

He knew someone was bound to call him, and quite honestly he didn't even know what to say at this point. He just needed a little bit of time to think, to come up with some sort of plan, to figure out a way to mentally channel her back here. That couldn't have been goodbye, he wouldn't accept it, if he had to hunt down some other worldly being himself he would find some way to get her back here. 

Slamming his eyes shut, he all but screamed her name inside his head in one last desperate attempt to urge her to materialize. Peeking one eye open, he felt that final bit of hope he was holding onto slipping away…

OoOoO

Of course Doyle had his suspicions as to what had Buffy all hot and bothered, but as with most things, he was bound by rules, ones that he didn't plan on breaking. Unless she just spilled and laid it all out for him he was banned from offering any sorts of wisdom or insights, not that he was much in the way of wisdom, that bit of business was far more up Lorne's alley, but sadly he did have an idea to what she was dealing with. 

Cursed with visions, he was a direct liaison to the powers, not only did he pass out the assignments to everyone in the neighborhood, he also got a glimpse, if you will, of how things would go and he knew from the start of all this that the poor girl was in for one bumpy road with this Angel fella. 

He'd been trying, between his own assignments that was, to keep an eye on her, to check in on her when he could and up until today he had thought that just maybe for once in his very long life he had been wrong. But when she opened that door all disheveled and lips swollen, his heart sank. She'd barely answered the door before she was making some excuse to usher him away, claiming that she was late for an appointment with her charge, but it was a lie and he knew it. 

His heart ached for the poor girl, ever since she came around he'd always had a soft spot for the small blonde. She'd been with them for a while, and unlike himself who was proudly half demon, she was one of the rare humans of the bunch, albeit with a few of her own powers. The rules that applied to him, didn't apply to her, just like the rules that applied to Lorne - a full fledged demon though far from the ones all the humans down on Earth had nightmares about, didn't apply to him.

Each of them had their own roles to play, their own rules to follow, and their own destinies to fulfill. Buffy just happened to be blessed with the choice of which path she would take, though, even, she wasn't aware of that little tidbit just yet. 

He didn't agree with it, but it was just the way it was. She had to decide for herself what her future was going to look like, he could offer some advice, if she asked, but he couldn't tell her what to do or what either future may hold. There was a reason no one ever heard from or about the ones who chose not to return, just like there was a reason none of the ones who chose the mortal life remembered them or anything about their formal life. 

Whatever she decided, there were going to be some hard days ahead, and not just for B either. They all loved the girl, and whichever path she chose to take there was bound to some broken hearts either way.

OoOoO

She watched yet another kleenex bounce of the waste basket across from her bed. Not even able to remember the last time she cried, she was more than a little surprised to find the box on her nightstand, but she didn't dwell on it, she only wished her biggest issue was figuring out how some box of tissue magically appeared in her home. 

When Doyle knocked on the door earlier, her heart sunk, thinking for sure that he somehow must have known what had just happened. After all she had been around long enough to know that any sort of inappropriate behavior was supposed to be reported immediately. But having been around so long, she'd seen what happened whenever one of her friends came back with some outrageous story about a client. It didn't happen often, most charges weren't too focused on who they were, and they rarely dared to do anything that may disqualify them from their wish, but like most things it did happen on occasion. 

Usually if the situation reported was confirmed to be true, and against their standard code of conduct, then the human was immediately dismissed. Their memory wiped, and their wish voided. 

She couldn't do that, not to Angel. Not only would it mean never seeing him again, it also meant that he would more than likely spend the rest of his life without finding his true happiness. Though after this morning that in itself posed a whole new set of obstacles. It was one thing to find him attractive, or to find out that she'd somehow mysteriously been haunting his dreams for the edge of forever, it was another thing entirely to know what he tasted like. To know how he felt so intimately against her, closing her eyes, her mind drifted back to memories of this morning, to how it felt wrapped in his arms, how it felt feeling that most private part of him brush against her. 

Hearing her watch vibrate against the table, she picked up, already knowing the name she would see. Angel had been calling for nearly since the second after she left, a twinge of guilt hit her as she pressed the small button on the side to ignore it. Closing her eyes one more time, she tried her best to clear her mind so she could take a quick peek in on him. 

Though as soon as she did, she almost wished she hadn't. Apparently he hadn't made it into work as he'd planned, which meant that he had missed the meeting he was supposed to attend. Not to mention he looked as bad as she expected she did, and that alone brought a fresh round of tears to her eyes. Pushing her comforter back, she stood and walked over to the small dresser, opting for comfort, she pulled out her favorite pair joggers and an old t-shirt she'd collected from some fancy destination or another. 

Changing quickly, she took one more glance in the mirror, and thank the powers she did, mascara, eyeliner, and everything else smudged down her face in tear stained streaks. Grabbing a rag, she ran it over her face and went ahead and took her brush to her hair, satisfied that she didn't look like a total homeless person, she grabbed her watch and placed it back on her wrist. 

OoOoO

Angel nearly jumped out of skin when he turned around and she was there. He noted that she had changed clothes, her hair was now straightened out around her beautiful face rather than up in the ponytail that it'd been in earlier, the redness in her eyes and slightly around her nose... "A-Angel," she greeted, trying to sound professional but her tone wavering. 

His mouth opened only to close again several times over, unsure of what to say to her but seemingly every choice rushing around in his brain. He was so thrilled to see her after being terrified he never would again, horrified that she had been up by something he'd done... but mostly just basked in the relief that flooded over him when he noticed her there. 

Opening his mouth once more, he took a step toward her, only for her to hurry back two more away from him. Again his words died on his tongue and he just let out a long sigh, his eyes begging her not to pull away from him now. 

"Angel," she tried again after clearing her throat, "I,  _ firstly _ , would like to apologize for what transpired between us here earlier, my actions as your guide to true happiness were disgraceful and should  _ not  _ have happened-"

He blinked hard at her, holding up a hand to stop her from going on any further. "Buffy, you do realize that  _ I  _ was the one who kissed  _ you  _ right? And it's not like I wasn't fully enjoying myself as a willing participant-"

" _ None _ of that should have happened," she repeated and he sighed again. 

"Why not?" he asked like before. "Why is it so wrong that I just might  _ like  _ you? And... and just  _ maybe  _ that you feel the same about me? How does that affect anyone else?"

"Because... that's not the order of things, Angel. We are quite literally from different worlds and are different beings! I am an immortal being serviced to The Powers That Be and you are a human male who wishes to fall in love with someone who can give him everything he desires in this life. And that is ever so simply  _ not  _ me."

"What if what I wished for and what I want now are two completely different things?"

Buffy let out a deep breath of her own before turning, walking off toward the kitchen. He stared after her, unsure if he should follow or not, but it wasn't long before she was back, lighting a candle like the one he'd made that fateful wish on. "You wished to fall in love and to be loved, Angel... something that we both know you deserve and should chase after. You wished to have someone there for all future birthdays and anniversaries and as a date to parties and all the holidays to come... someone to just be there with you. You wished to have security with someone. To have a family someday with this person. That is your hearts' wish and I promise you it doesn't just change because you have some misguided lust filled feelings directed my way and-"

"That is not what this is, Buffy," he cut her off again. 

"Angel, I am your guide on this journey and nothing much more here. Maybe this being a little extra friendly, hanging out outside of the needs relating to your future is to blame for the confusion and it's probably best we keep our focus strictly on bringing your wish to life - at least for now, to get everything back to normal, back on track."

"Buffy-"

"If it were as simple as assigning you over to someone else then that is certainly what I would put in a request for, but it's not. It is usually a drawn out process with a thorough investigation and once they figured out the reason behind everything it would cancel out your wish and that isn't fair to you." 

"None of this seems very fair to anyone right now."

"I'm sure it seems that way right now, Angel."

OoOoO

When Angel wound up voicing his questions about how would anyone know if they didn't follow protocol, if they just hid their relationship under the guise of her still trying to find his natural happily ever after with whoever else... Buffy took a seat and closed her eyes. "So. You think some all knowing beings who brought us together in the first place just wouldn't somehow figure it out? These wishes are part of balancing the order of the universe and don't see how a hiccup like this might create some issues? Sure, not all wishes are fulfilled as they are intended but I'm sure it would come to light sooner or later."

"So? And then what? What if these Powers people did know?"

Buffy pressed her lips together for a moment. "I don't honestly know for sure what would happen on my end. Maybe I would lose my ability to do this job, be sent elsewhere, poof from everything? Maybe I'd end up on a chopping block? I don't know. It's not exactly a situation that gets talked about often. As for you... I mean, think about it, Angel. If you decided to end your contract or if they did, all memories of me would be gone, just like that. If this idea in your head even happened.. then what? On the year anniversary of your wish the same will happen and you will be in the same position as you started out in. There's no happily ever after here. In the end, ever time, it'll end like none of this even happened."

He had kept telling himself the same thing and for awhile there he was sure it helped him keep his feelings somewhat at bay but he wasn't so sure he cared as much as the future implications as she did. "We would have it for now... for however long we could keep things under wraps or whatever."

"That's not good enough, Angel," she said and started trying to tell him about how glorious it is when someone has their wish granted, the contract fulfilled, but he just couldn't let go. Something about the two of them were outside of the normal, something or somewhere or whatever the case may be had set something in motion beyond the two of them that had to account for something. 

Even if she wanted to keep brushing it off and bringing her point back to the forefront of their conversation. 

OoOoO

"Angel, do you wish to terminate your contract?"

Angel wanted to scream ‘Yes!’ at her if he had to follow through with the rules in place about who it had to be and who it apparently couldn't be tied to, but he knew what that meant so he shook his head. If nothing else, he hoped the extra time would help him convince her his feelings were as real as anything, and maybe somehow find a loop hole to all this madness."

Not that he had any clue as to how one would get that kind of information and he was sure she wasn't about to go around looking into it. 

She started to ramble off bits about her new course of action and promises for change once they got back into the swing of things come tomorrow, and it took everything in him not to roll his eyes like he was some sixteen year old girl. It was just the more he thought about this whole dating thing, the more sick to his stomach he became. 

He had never been one to fall easily, hell, he could count on less than a hand how many serious relationships he'd had, and even then, his partners had always considered things far more serious than he ever had. Sure he'd been attracted to different women before, bedded more than his fair even, but he'd never been drawn to anyone the way he was to her, and despite what she may be trying to convince herself of, he knew she'd felt something this morning too. 

It was almost as if they were made for each other, like they were cut from some piece of cloth, or bone, or whatever you wanted to call it, but the way her body fit against his this morning was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Even now hours later the memory still sent a shudder through him. 

"And then the aliens came and they confiscated all the twinkies." His eyes went wide as he desperately tried to figure out just what in the hell she was talking about. 

She slammed her pen down, "You're not even paying attention." 

Walking over to where she was perched on the couch, he tried to ignore the way her body tensed as he plopped down beside her. Gone was the warm bubbly girl he'd grown so accustomed to, and in her place was some no nonsense professional who reminded him far too much of Lindsey's long term hook up Cordelia. His head fell to the side, "I'm sorry." 

She nodded, and picked up her pen to continue, but he reached out and gently took the notebook from her hands. "Angel-," she started, but he shook his head. "No Buffy, please, just let me get this out." 

She nodded though he could tell she was hesitant, "Go ahead," she urged. 

"I'm sorry about this morning, not because of what happened," he clarified, "But because of how it made you feel,  _ and _ because of the strain it's obviously put on things between us. I'm not going to lie, and as I'm sure you have figured out, I'm not really one to sugar coat things, I have feelings for you. Deep feelings that I'm not sure I've ever experienced before," she went to interrupt him, but he grabbed her hand, "Please, just let me finish." 

"I would never do anything to hurt you Buffy, I would never do anything to intentionally make you uncomfortable, and if you really feel like I crossed a line this morning then I am sorry," he stressed, "But going forward you have to know that as far as all this happy ending business is concerned, well if you're not it then I just don't think it exists, because as far as I'm concerned there's not a girl out there who could even come close to comparing to you." 

Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but squeeze his hand, why did everything he say have to be so damn perfect. "I don't want to terminate my contract because I know that means saying goodbye to you," he continued, "And that's just not something I'm ready to do. So if having you in my life means meaningless dates with every Britney, Lacey, or Barbara, then so be it. I'll go on the dates, I'll answer the questions," he shook his head, and for a split second she nearly reached out for him, "But can we please just go back to being us? This morning when you left… I've never been more terrified in my life, when you ignored me calling you my mind immediately went to the worst case scenarios. I didn't know if I would even remember who you were, much less ever see you again." 

Her eyes glazed over and she fought with everything inside of her not to let the fresh tears spill. She was pretty sure she had never cried so much in all of her existence, those emotional out burst she was so used to seeing from all of her clients sure were starting to make a lot more sense. "Please don't cry," she heard him plea, and she quickly used her free hand to wipe at her eyes. "Come here," he urged, and despite everything inside her saying otherwise she let him pull her against his side. 

"I'm sorry for ignoring you," she mumbled, her face practically buried in the crook of his arm. "And I'm sorry for just disappearing the way I did, it's just where I come from any kind of contact like that is strictly forbidden." Turning her head a bit she leaned more against him so her voice wasn't so muffled, "No one knows what happens to them ya know." 

His eyes glanced down to meet hers, "Who?"

"The ones like me who get caught doing the type of things we did this morning." 

Angel couldn't help but smirk a little at her innocence, it had been a long time since a kiss had caused so much controversy in his life, but he stayed quiet hoping she would continue, not to mention after the day's high emotions it was nice to have her so close again. "You mean it's happened before," he pushed. 

She nodded, her hand absent-mindededly coming up to toy with the buttons of his shirt, "I don't know the details, none of us do. Most of the time we're pretty much left in the dark when something like that happens, but we hear stories. Most of which are used by our higher ups to keep us all in check, to remind the newbies why the rules are so important." 

From everything she had explained the powers or whoever were supposed to be the good guys, the ones who went against the forces of evil and yet he couldn't help but feel that anyone who was making people quite literally fall off the face of the Earth was playing for the wrong side. 

"Yep, they get caught, there's usually a trial of sorts during which they aren't allowed contact with any of us, then a decision is made and either they are proven innocence and return to work banned from ever speaking of the process, or they just disappear, and a team comes in to clear out their belongings and get their house ready for the next recruit to move in." 

Angel let out a deep breath, none of what she was saying was making sense, whoever the hell these power people were better hope he never got a hold of them. "But how did they find, the powers I mean, how did they know something inappropriate was going on? You said yourself that these people, beings," he corrected at her look, "You said they go through some sort of trial right?" 

She nodded. 

"So maybe the powers aren't all knowing like they want you to believe, maybe they don't know anything unless they're tipped off somehow or something, and then they go off and drag it out of the person who's like you, a guide. Maybe they really have no idea what's going on."

Catching on now to where he was going with all of this, she cleared her throat and sat back up straight, smoothing out her lap. "I don't know what they know, Angel, or when or how they get their information. Not about me or you or anyone else. I really don't. But I do know that The Powers know countless things about me, about things I have done in the past, and it wouldn't surprise me if they knew plenty about my future as well. They tend to loosen strings on those who have been around long enough, when they are out on a job... as long as there's not some major issue.... And, I mean, they knew plenty about you, too. They knew you made that wish," she sighed. "But no matter the case, please accept that we both know it is against the rules that were clearly laid out and at the end of the day you and me as anything more than what we are intended is not in the cards."

OoOoO

Since he had already called himself out from work for the day and now that he was at least a little less paranoid than he started the day off as, he wasn't sure what to do with himself. Buffy absolutely refused to budge when he tried to convince her to spend the day with him, even when he offered to agree to do nothing but talk shop if it meant she would stay, or to let her go ahead assist him setting up a date, or two, or a hundred even... she still refused to give in. 

Buffy just kept repeating that today had already been long and they should take some time apart to recover and "get back to their senses." Start new tomorrow she had promised. Hell, she had already told him she would meet him at their agreed upon location for tomorrow rather than wanting to do her usual swing by in the morning around the time he woke. 

Getting her back to even being herself around him almost seemed impossible let alone back to the budding friendship they had gone. 

And everything he knew they both desired beyond even that.

He wasn't about to give up on her though, he just needed to figure out a plan. Briefly, Angel wondered over how one such as himself might be able to obtain or research more information about these mystical Powers. His thoughts drifted to either the library or the internet but he still hadn't dove into such, tempting as it had been even before this morning with her. He doubt it was even as simple as that, searching for higher powers, wish makers and guides to true happiness, and all of that but he really felt at a loss for what else to do on that side of it all. 

Even being blind to how Buffy's world, job, whatever worked... he still knew somehow he could get through to her somehow. He didn't want to get her in any sort of trouble, and he knew that all signs pointed to her winding up erased from his life and memory no matter what they did so if that was truly to be the case he didn't see why they couldn't enjoy the time they did have. Better to have loved and lost and all that jazz... 

Needing to at least get out of the apartment and get some fresh air, he grabbed just his keys and wallet and headed out. 

OoOoO

Returning home, Buffy found herself laid out on her bed this time, her eyes absent mindedly looking around her room. Kicking her shoes off to the floor, she secured the comforter back of her body and slumped against the headboard. She wondered if she should have just stayed, taken him up on his offer to keep focus on discussing his future properly or about the dates, but she just couldn't. 

She needed to put some distance between herself and him until she could get her head back on straight. Her heart whispered, however, that she could probably spend eternity trying to rid herself of these strange feelings she had for her charge and it not even make a dent.

She was totally in over her head with this assignment, with him, and had no idea what to really do about it. It didn't help that she had no one to go to for advice, too afraid to bring anyone else into this mess. Hell, Lorne hadn't even been back since he went to look into the business about the drawing and it was taking enough out of her worrying about even that. 

She could only hope he had found a lead and was going to return soon with some sort of answer that would make all of this make sense. 

With a sigh, she glanced over to the notebook and pen beside her on the nightstand and reached over for it but didn't find herself getting anywhere. Thinking about Angel right now was just too much. Thinking about how to get him to put all the feelings he was convinced he had for her into someone else was also just too much right now. 

Buffy had never given too much thought to how her life was, it just... well, was. This is all she knew now. She was part of the grander scheme of the universe and that had always been enough for her. She hadn't enjoyed every case she had been given but she had always enjoyed her job, her purpose. 

And truthfully, she had never given much thought to the what ifs. What if she was one of the rare ones who dared to do the unthinkable, to break the rules. Not since she was just starting out had she given as much thought to what exactly happened to those who had, where did they go, what happened to the other being they had been working with? 

It was too unknown for her liking. It scared her to think of losing this life, of not knowing what would be the alternative, thinking she would just be some speck of dust wiped away like it was nothing. It scared her to no end to look around her place and imagine everything gone, no trace of her remaining, her friends here left in more or less the dark about what even might have happened to her... 

It really didn't seem fair that the universe she spent so much time trying to help had put her in this kind of position. 


	6. Chapter Six

Since he wanted to avoid anyone from work, Angel avoided his usual haunts and just drove aimlessly trying to calm his thoughts, winding up at the old building in front of his without giving it any thought. He sighed, shutting the engine off and stepping out. Even though he had a key to the old studio, he opted for using the magical skeleton key Buffy had given him to enter the building. 

For the longest time he just sat stared at all the different pieces in various stages of completion. Shaking his head, he couldn't believe that he hadn't put the two together before, that he had willingly let her walk into this place, see all this without any sort of explanation, not that he had much of explanation for any of it now, but at least she wouldn't have been walking in blind. 

Flipping through one of his sketchbooks there was no question in his mind that she was right, that the face that belonged on all these images were hers. Grabbing one of the pink erasers, he went to work erasing the parts of the image where her face was nothing but a shaded blur. 

It didn't take long before the lines and markings began to take shape, to come to life before him and before he knew it there she was, those sea green eyes smiling back at him. He wasn't sure which was worse, her faceless image haunting him, or those bright eyes staring back at him. Who was he kidding, no matter what happened, no matter how much it cut him up, there wasn't a second spent with her that he regretted. Sure his life would be a hell of a lot simpler without her ever having bippity boppity boo'd her way into it, but he was quickly learning that she was what made his life worth living in the first damn place. 

It wasn't love, he couldn't love someone he hardly even knew, but he felt something for that girl that he had never fucking experienced. It transcended lust, or simple need, he wanted her physically of course, but more than that he just wanted her. He wanted to see the way she smiled first thing in the morning, wanted to know if she snored once she slipped off into a deep sleep late at night, he wanted to hear her laugh, every day, the way she laughed when they were painting the other night. 

He wanted to meet her friends, see where she lived, but more than anything he wanted to know what it was like to fall asleep with her safely in his arms, tucked against his side, he wanted to know what the possibility of forever felt like, with her. 

OoOoO

Before he knew it, hours had passed and he'd gone through not only his sketchbook, but a couple of his charcoal drawings as well. No longer were they lifeless, mysterious drawings of a person unknown, now they were her, all her, standing, sitting, seducing, taunting. The light had long since stopped flickering through the window blinds, if he had to guess he was pretty sure it was edging towards midnight though in all honesty it wouldn't really surprise him if it was later. 

The old antique mirror he kept off in the corner caught his attention, running a hand through his hair, he let out a shaky breath. He looked like shit, black smears were smudged across his cheek, his shirt, his fingers and hands. If anyone were to see him like this they would probably think he'd gone crazy, but the truth was, for the first time in a long time he felt like he was finally starting to see things clearly. See them for what they really were, rather than what he thought they were supposed to be. 

Deciding it was too late and he was too exhausted to drive all the way back to his place tonight, he pulled one of the old blankets and pillows he kept stashed away out the bottom of one the trunks he had off in the corner. Used to, before she came into his life, before he gave all this up, it wasn't unusual for him to work so late his eyes would start to cross so badly he'd have no choice but to crash here.

Lying on the old chaise lounger, he couldn't help but feel a tiny sense of peace being back here. Hardly under the best of circumstances, but sometimes it took that desperation to drive him forward. He smirked, she may have been all he managed to create again, but even that wasn't new. Once again she had succeeded in bringing a piece of him back that had long thought lost. As the last bits of consciousness left him, and he drifted off to that place in between he would have almost sworn he felt the softest touch of her lips on his cheek. Assuming he was just imagining things, the exhaustion taking its toll, he pulled the blanket up a bit higher as he fully drifted off. 

OoOoO

Sensing his desperation, she couldn't help popping into check on him one last time, though she had tried to make sure that he was sleeping before she did so. She wasn't quite sure how she felt finding him back in the studio, but as she'd tiptoed around she still found herself utterly amazed with his level of talent. A few of the portraits were even transporting her back to this morning and how she felt all wrapped up beneath him, though she tried her best not to dwell on those too much. 

Sitting back in her own bed she tried to make a list of who the top contenders were for this next date of his, they had tossed around a few possibilities last week but now she just wasn't sure. She loved her job, she loved everything about what she did, the thrill of those first meetings, the rush of witnessing the first kiss, the first embrace, it excited her, gave her a sense of purpose and belonging to set all these humans on their paths to their very own happily ever after. It was literally what she lived for and yet no matter how hard she tried, all she seemed to feel everytime she looked at the stupidest list in front of her was sadness. 

Just glancing at the list of names they had compiled, she could easily name a dozen reasons why each of them would never work, could never be his soul mate. There was nothing wrong with them exactly, but she knew Angel, albeit a little too well, and she just knew he would go through the motions sure, but ultimately it would just be some sort of facade to appease her, even if she had taken their  _ friend _ dates off the table. 

Tossing her notebook to the side, she rubbed her tired eyes with the palms of her hands, she was spent. It was obvious she had figured out and sorted as much of this mess as she could possibly do today, maybe after some rest she could look at it all with a fresh pair of eyes. 

OoOoO

Feeling the bed dip beside her, she giggled as strong arms came to rest on either side of her head. Everything around them faded, almost as if she couldn't quite focus on anything, well except for him of course. His soft lips guided across her own, "Is this a dream," she whispered barely loud enough for him to hear. 

She felt his shoulders shrug, "Probably." 

Angel's eyes met hers and she gasped as his lips fell to hers once more, her eyes closing in what seemed like slow motion, and one of those whimpering moans falling from her not long after. "W-we can't be doing this," she whispered, even as her fingertips made their way under the backside of his shirt, pulling him down, her body arching just the tiniest bit to get closer to him. 

As wrong as it was, she couldn't seem to stop herself. Today had been nothing short of torture. She had been worried about her entire fate, his, and she had missed him countless times throughout the day, she'd gotten lost time and time again as her thoughts would drift back to this morning in his bed...

Ignoring her concerns, one of Angel's hands made their way down her body, coming to rest at her hip while his lips deepened the kiss, his free hand tangling in her hair at the top of her head, taking the opportunity her latest little sound gave to slip his tongue inside her mouth, just like before. Shivering slightly, she tried to just relax rather than just worry she was making some giant fool of herself with not knowing what she was doing, letting herself enjoy what he was doing and how it made her feel for just a bit longer. 

"Angel?" He mumbled some sort of acknowledgement as they broke apart and his mouth fell to the soft skin of her neck, suckling and nipping at her. "We h-have to stop," she told him, even as her fingernails scratched lightly at his flesh. 

His head lifted after another moment, staring down at her. "Why? Do your bosses peak around in your dreams as well?" 

Her shoulders shrugged sheepishly. "I don't know. I mean, I would doubt it but... I guess I don't really know for sure..."

His head shook a little. "Are you sure these Powers That Be are really who you should be tangled up in? Sorry, but the more I hear about people vanishing and mind wipes and peeping Tom's... it's a little concerning."

Buffy rolled her eyes as he fell a bit to the side, his arms wrapping around her, holding her close, "I don't have all of the answers but they're not evil, Angel."

"Could've fooled me," he mumbled.

Buffy tried to explain to him that this sort of magic was protected, its place in the universe, and how she knew first hand that it couldn't be that they were on the wrong side of things because of what she'd witnessed with her own eyes... but she wasn't so sure he was even listening with his attention seeming to be elsewhere. 

She, too, found it difficult to keep her thoughts together, hyper aware of every little movement he made, where his hands roamed, her mind getting fuzzier every single time she felt his lips on her. 

"No offense to your favorite pair of pjs or anything, but I think I prefer you in this."

Buffy glanced down at his hands slipping just under the bottom of her camisole on either side, and over the very top of her stretch black shorts, holding her in place. "Why?" she asked, confused. She liked the matching sets with all of their cute designs on them. When her eyes met his, it dawned on her though what he was getting at and she blushed. " _ Oh _ ." 

"For someone who has been around for as long as you have, you still manage to be utterly fucking innocent and it kills me," he whispered down to her. 

OoOoO

"I'm going to have an awful time dealing with you tomorrow if you don't stop that," Buffy told herself as much as him as Angel placed open mouthed kisses across her stomach where he'd folded up her shirt. She squirmed as his lips fell over her belly button, his warm tongue dipping inside for just a moment. 

"I can't help that I want you," he told her, tugging her back down before gliding back up her body until they were face to face once more. 

"Well, I do suggest you figure something out about that."

"Yeah? And what exactly do  _ you  _ have planned to stop your feelings brewing in there?"

"Pretending like none of this happened and focusing on doing my job?" She just hoped that would be as easy to repeat over and over to herself as it was to actually make it come to be once she was out of the safe little bubble of the dreamworld. 

"Yeah, good luck with that," he teased just as his lips sought hers for another tasting. "I missed you too much today."

OoOoO

Buffy nearly jumped as her alarm blasted beside her, effectively bringing her back to the real world. Her body was still tingling from her far too realistic dream, her lungs going through the motions of trying to collect air into them as if everything had really been happening. 

She was feeling a lot less confident in the day ahead by the second. 

Forcing herself out of bed, eyes widening as her reflection met her when she stood up, shaking her head as she turned away to find something to throw on and hopefully have a miracle happen between now and seeing Angel that would turn this job into all the ones like it before. 

OoOoO

Angel groaned loudly as reality slipped back in, images of Buffy suddenly gone, and he found himself back in the drafty studio. 

Rubbing his eyes, he winced, realizing he was still a mess and needed to get home to take a shower, or two, before work... but he also had a meeting with Buffy to keep... but his phone and change of clothes and everything he needed to start his day were back across town... Going round and round in his mind, ten more minutes passed before he even managed to sit up. 

Dragging his feet, he managed to lock back up, head to the car and start back toward his apartment, hoping he could get through this day without some new, giant disaster.

OoOoO

When he didn't show, Buffy waited a few more minutes before walking off to the bathroom for some privacy before popping herself up to his apartment, her heart racing as she found him half dressed in front of his bed. 

His head turned for a moment as he slipped a shirt on and started buttoning it up. "I know, sorry, I'm running all sorts of late this morning," he told her before she could get her mouth to do anything but hang open. 

Forcing herself to look away, she found a book on his shelf to find interesting enough to stare at instead and cleared her throat. "That's fine, I was just checking in on you... especially since one of your potential dates already came and left."

He made a noise about that, then surprised her by asking if this so called soulmate person had to be located in Sunnydale. 

Despite knowing better, she turned back to face him. "N-no? Was there somewhere in particular you were thinking about looking?" She cursed inwardly as her heart sank a little at hopeful tone in his voice. 

His eyes settled on hers through the mirror, she could pretend all she wanted, he saw that flash of sadness cross her face. "I was just thinking about getting away for a little while, I've got some vacation days saved up," he shrugged, "Figured I might as well take advantage of 'em." 

She worked her lip between her teeth. She'd definitely had some success in the area in times past, sometimes getting her charges away from the everyday hustle and bustle of their lives was all it took to get them to open their eyes and see what was in front of them. Problem was, she wasn't so sure it was the job he needed getting away from. "Where'd you have mind," she asked softly, watching him loop his tie her mind flashed back to the dream she'd had and how it felt pulling that exact one off him. 

His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, he watched her cheeks flush, and it was almost as if he could read her mind. He was used to the dreams, at least he used to be use to them, however this time it wasn't some faceless ghost torturing him, it was her and for just a split second he wondered if it had really been a dream at all. "Uhh," he stuttered, reality seeming to slam back into him. "You tell me, you're the one that's traveled the world and seen all there was to see. Where's your favorite place?" 

"Africa," she answered without even thinking. 

His eyes widened a bit, then he just shook his head, girl definitely had a habit of keeping him on his toes. "Africa huh?"

She watched his face scrunch up and she nodded, taking a couple steps closer to him. "Victoria Falls is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and I know you've probably see a lion or an elephant in a zoo or whatever, but there's definitely something to be said about seeing an animal like that in its natural habitat." Pausing, she noticed that part of his shirt was bunched out above his belt, then, without even realizing what she was doing she reached out, her fingertips barely slipping into the waistband of his trousers she smoothed the fabric down. 

Angel felt it, the instant she realized her mistake, she froze for a second, then almost immediately went to back away, every muscle within him tensed but he let her step back. The last fucking thing he wanted was for her to pull a disappearing act on him again, he couldn't handle another day like that. He cleared his throat, "Africa it is." 

"What," she laughed, "Angel you can't just up and take off to Africa." 

"Why can't I? What, do your powers have rules about that too?" 

She rolled her eyes, "Well no, but I mean it's Africa. As in on the other side of the world, most people spend years planning this kind of trip." 

Sitting on the bed he leaned over to lace his shoes, he knew she was right, but at this point he wasn't sure what he had to lose. She would be there, and she'd obviously been before, he was fairly certain they were capable of winging it. "I'll look for us a hotel at lunch, book our flights, we could probably fly out as soon as the weekend." 

We, us, our, the words reverberated through her head. "Angel, I-I don't need a flight," she tried to remind him, "I can just meet you there, I mean if you're really set on doing this, then once you get--." 

"Come on," he groaned, cutting her off. "The flight alone has to be what fifteen, twenty hours? You're really going to make me travel all the way there alone?" 

She huffed, he was playing dirty and they both knew it, she could totally see him trying to fight back that grin. She'd really walked right into this one, it was true she'd never actually been on an airplane before, and she had to admit the fangled flying machines had peaked her interest on more than one occasion, but she shook her head again, "It's too expensive." 

Angel smirked, she was starting to crack, "I've got miles," he argued. He really wished he knew how long the flight was, not that he really cared, he just wanted to be able to calculate the hours he'd be guaranteed beside her. She couldn't exactly go poofing from a plane, surely that would raise more than a few brows. "Please."

Her eyes fell shut and she let out a long breath, once again ignoring every sane bone in her body she felt herself nodding, "Fine." She opened her eyes to see one of those rare smiles she loved so much taking over his face. "But," she added, "I am there to work." 

OoOoO

He was on cloud nine, the clock was literally ticking, and he had so much to figure out and get settled it should be making his head spin, but he didn't care, he was just glad he'd gotten her to agree. He hadn't even planned it honestly, not really anyway, but when she was standing there so close and yet so fucking far away he had to think of something, he had to try something. There had to be a way that he could convince her to give them a chance, to get her to stop looking at every woman that crossed his path and take a freaking glance in the mirror. 

Hopefully this little spur of the moment adventure would give him at least a little head way. She kept repeating that it was nothing more than part of her job, and he'd let her rattle on about all the different places he could possibly bump into his soul mate or whatever, but he had one goal in mind when it came to the trip and she was the only woman it involved. 

She had been right about one thing, the tickets were outrageous, especially since he'd splurged and upgraded them to first class, there was no way he was flying nearly twenty-one hours in coach. He'd known from one of their previous Iate night conversations that one of her perks of the job was obtaining whatever type of identification she may need, so when he'd got the tickets he did what anyone might do in his situation and just used his last name for the both of them. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for the flight staff to think they were a couple, though he was pretty sure she wasn't going to see the humor in the situation. 

It was the hotel situation he was having trouble with, there were so many options he wasn't sure what to choose. They could rent a bungalow in the jungle, stay at a small resort close to the falls, there were even some luxury tree houses over looking the Zambezi. He knew that he was starting to get ahead of himself, it was one thing to convince her to go with him, or share a plane ride together even, but it was another to think she would actually stay there the entire time with him, let alone in the same room for the trip. He sighed, thinking he could always tell her he booked one room given he knew she could pop in and out as she pleased, and could explain that to her when she got all huffy about it, but that didn't exactly help things either. 

He'd already put in his notice for the upcoming time off and got part of it planned out so at least there was a start and that had to count for something. Deciding to take a break from looking at the different resort options, he thought he should do some research on the area itself, beyond just the tourist attractions he wanted to experience with the beautiful blonde, to try and get familiar with what he was getting himself into. 

He'd only left the country once and that was years ago now.

OoOoO

The day surprisingly seemed to fly by, though once word started getting around about his trip it was a little hard to explain to those closest to him that he was all of a sudden taking time off to go flying across the country and to answer the boys' prying questions without giving away too much at the same time. He felt more excited though than he had in a long time and was practically bubbling over by the time he was back in Buffy's presence. 

Sliding his phone over to her as he swung around to the other side of the booth, she barely glanced up from her notebook at first, then her eyebrows scrunched up and she reached for the device. "You're serious?" He nodded and she shook her head, looking more closely at his mobile copy of the tickets and travel documents he'd been sent earlier. "What's with the name?"

He tried not to smile as he shrugged his shoulders, thankful for the brief interruption from the waitress taking his drink order. "I had to put something down," he told her as the young blonde girl walked off again. 

"And that's what you came up with?"

"It's not a bad name."

"Buffy Lynn Angelus?" she read off out loud. "Totally not my middle nor my last name there, pal."

"Hey, well you've yet to tell me either so I had to improvise. I think you'll live."

Rolling her eyes, she scanned down the rest of the long email and started writing a few quick notes down on a fresh sheet of paper from her notebook. "Well, I can always pretend to be your sister," she offered. 

Angel couldn't help the smirk that spread over his face at that idea. No one in their right mind would jump to that conclusion he was sure of. "Not quite what I was going for there."

OoOoO

"So, what were you doing the last time you were in Africa?"

"What do you think I was doing?" 

"Well, obviously, you were being a guide to some wisher... but I don't know. What all did you do and see? What did you like, not like? What did the person wish for, did the wish get fulfilled?" he rambled on. 

"That tall blonde who just came in with two of her friends... what do you think about her?" 

Angel sighed, glancing over toward the door. "I don't know." 'She's not you,' he added silently. 

Buffy seemed to stare at her for several more moments before looking back to him. "If you really want to know about my time there then fine, but I'm not going to tell you all sorts of details about the job."

"Why not? Is there some sort of wisher and guide confidentiality clause?"

"Did you even read all of your contract when you signed it?"

"No one reads fine prints after awhile, Buffy."

She sighed. "Fine. I can't tell you anything specific but yes there was a job, my charge was a middle aged woman, and yes her wish was able to come true by the end of our time together."

"What did she wish for?"

Buffy gave him an annoyed look. "Would you want me to go around telling others what you wished for once this is over?"

"I don't see why not. You can talk about me to whoever you want," he said with another smile her way. "Besides, I'm still not going to be able to pinpoint this woman just because you go and tell me what her wish was."

"All the same..." She looked back over her shoulder to where the trio had been placed at a table not too far from where they were. 

"You know we're leaving the country right?"

"Yeah, well, you have plenty of time to meet your match between now and then, and more than likely, I see you returning to good ol' California sooner or later, too."


	7. Chapter Seven

"What are you planning on packing for the trip?" Angel asked as they stepped back out of the restaurant, his eyes glancing down at the three phone numbers he managed to get from the entire trio just as they were leaving, before pushing the napkin into his pants pocket. 

Buffy made a face. "Why would I be packing anything? I can always pop back to my house to get clothes or whatever I need like I have every other time."

"Yeah," he said slowly, "but it might look a little strange to show up for a flight of this size without any baggage, not to mention you might want to bring a carry on to keep yourself occupied during the flight..." When she stopped walking and seemed to be letting that sink in, it hit him. "You've never actually been on a plane before."

"I've never needed to. If someone had a business trip or something I'd always just meet them on the other side... And nothing's ever made me feel like I need to just be part of a flight for someone, or to pop in on one..."

"Are you scared? About flying?"

"No... not scared, maybe some aspects make me a little anxious. Like, I don't want to do something wrong, pack something I shouldn't in this made up bag I apparently need to have, and get you in some sort of trouble or something like that."

"You won't," he promised, offering to print her off some flight rules and regulations if she so wanted since he knew how much she loved those, and telling her he would double check her luggage to make sure everything was good to go before they even headed off to the airport when the time came.

OoOoO

Reaching his apartment, Buffy looked up at the building and started to tell him goodnight and confirming their plans for the next morning. 

"Will you please come back up with me and just hang out? We can discuss plans for me calling those girls and what I should go off and do with them even. Can we please continue to be friends... even if those lines got a little blurry?"

"I don't see how that would be a good idea, Angel."

He huffed, "Why not?" 

"You know why," she turned towards him. Her tone softening a little, "Please don't be mad." 

He wanted to close those precious few inches between, he wanted to grab her, to shake some sense into, kiss her until she was breathless, he wanted to show each and every reason them being together was a very good idea, and yet, he stayed still. Frozen, he didn't even trust himself to breath, her green depths locked onto his, the only sounds between them the soft breaths leaving her lips. 

"I'm not mad," he finally argued, taking a step back so he could put a little more space between the two of them, a move that, judging from the strange look on her face wasn't lost on her. 

"Then why are you pouting?"

"I'm not pouting okay, it's just, it's just that none of this seems fair. You can take a twenty hour plane ride with me, we can go to breakfast, brunch, you name it, but you can't come upstairs and sit on the couch while we talk about our upcoming trip, or the bimbos you're trying to hook me up with, or watch a movie, or do anything else normal people might partake in."

Shaking his head, he looked towards the ground before seeming to come to some sort of internal decision, jerking his head up, he locked onto her gaze once more. "You don't get it Buffy, you're the one in control here. You get to set the terms for this friendship, or partnership, or whichever label you have decided to give it for the day. You always know where I'm at, what am I doing, you can pop in anytime you want, anytime you have something to say or when you want to see me." 

Taking a deep breath he forced himself to continue, the last thing he wanted to do was argue with her but he needed to get this off his chest. " I don't get to do that, I don't know where you go, or where you are, and when you disappeared after what happened in my room… I was so worried that I would never see you again, that some invisible force was going to snap their fingers and violate me in the worst possible way by altering my memories, by making me forget the one girl that I can't seem to get off my mind." 

He knew he was digging his own grave, but the logical part of his brain was losing the battle, no matter how hard he tried to stop it his mouth just kept fucking moving. "And I'm sorry for that, not because I feel the way I do, but because I know how much my feelings terrify you. And now knowing what little bits you have told me, I have to admit that all of it scares me just as much, but you have to know that I would never do anything to hurt you or put your life in jeopardy. So if that means spending the next forty some odd weeks feigning interest in some random girl, or pretending that my dreams are not filled with images of you, or making sure that I keep my damn hands to myself, then I'll do it. But please," he begged, "Please, do not fucking shut me out, or treat me like I'm just some charge or contract or job or whatever it is that you seem to try and categorize me as." 

She stood there completely dumbfounded, she was fairly certain that Angel had just said more to her standing out there on the side of the road than he had said to her in all their time together. Well maybe that wasn't exactly true, but he'd definitely just given her a glimpse of a part of him she hadn't seen before. 

"Just forget it," he muttered softly, moving towards the door. 

"Angel wait," she exclaimed, grabbing onto his arm. He paused but he didn't quite turn back around to face her, he just couldn't stand to look her in the eye while she spatted off the endless list as to why how they felt was wrong. 

"You're right okay, and I know it's not fair. None of it is, you're upset because I get to see you and you can't see me, but what you don't understand is how hard that is for me to deal with. This life, this calling, it's literally the only thing I have ever known, all I know is the rules of the powers, and all I have ever been taught to do is put others' needs before my own. In this life, in my life," she stressed, "The only happiness I have ever known is a job well done, the only love I've ever experienced has been through the eyes of whoever it is that I'm helping at the time. For goodness sake, the only friends I have ever even had are part freaking demon.”

She was trying her best to keep her emotions in check, she didn't want pity, not from him. Sighing, she let her fingers slip from his arm, at least he had turned back around to face her so she wasn't having to say all this to his back, "When I'm not with you, it's like my mind is consumed with you, and you may not believe me but I don't spend my free time sitting around spying on you. I get lost in my head too, wondering what you're doing, what you're thinking about, if you're having fun on the date I sent you on." 

She gestured around them, “I'm here because you made a wish to find your dream girl, your very own version of happily ever after, and you get so annoyed everytime I bring it up, but what you don't seem to get is that none of this is easy for me either. I let something happen here and I risk everything, your memories are at stake yes, but as far as I know my entire life is. No one knows what happens when one of us gets too involved, I don't know if I would die, or be turned into a human, or zapped from existence, so ya I'm a little scared." 

She sniffled, "I don't know why you've dreamed of me for years, I don't know how you have seemed to of created countless masterpieces all centered around me, and I don't know how the powers could possibly expect me to just sit by and send you on all these dates when they have to know that deep down I'm wishing it were me. I wish I could be your happily ever after, I wish we could go to dinner or watch a movie, or do anything without discussing the possibilities of your next date. But I don't have that luxury, we don't," she corrected. 

Angrily she wiped at the tears that had started to accumulate, sometimes she really hated being a girl and the hormones that came right along with it. "I can't be your friend Angel, I don't know how to be your friend, because whenever I look at you all I can seem to think about is how badly I want you to kiss me again.”

Whatever else she intended to say never came to pass as one of Angel's arms easily wrapped around her, pulling her flush against him as his lips found their way to hers, and she was pretty sure had he not been holding on to her, her knees would have buckled from under her from the contact. 

Her mind seemed to go completely blank for several seconds, and then there was just him. All outside noise seemed to cease, there was no longer a line of cars passing along on the street, or people on the sidewalks, music and voices, feet stomping coming from the various other apartments. Time seemed to just come to a halt, she felt weightless, unsure if she was dreaming, if she was still in front of his apartment, in her own little dimension, if she was on the ground, floating, or anything else. 

She wasn't sure how much time had in fact passed, but it felt like forever and like it all ended too quickly at the same time. When he did finally pull away, her chest was burning from being starved from the fresh air filling her lungs as needed, her entire body felt warm, her head stilling spinning. Even when he forced himself to step away, she felt like she might fall over. 

"Okay, so... so let's say I promise not to do that...  _ the rest of today anyhow. _ .." he panted out, "Could you please, begging you here, please... just... have some  _ normalcy  _ with me and stop shutting me out?  _ Just for a little bit?  _ An hour? Thirty minutes? Fifteen?"

OoOoO

Pressing her lips together, she could just about find the taste of him still lingering, her vision still seemed a bit on the fuzzy side as she followed behind him, the alarm bells going off inside of her not helping with that one tiny bit. She knew she should leave, they'd met, even ate out together for dinner while discussing things here and there, scouting out some new faces and making tiny progress.. in a sense anyhow, she'd kept it mostly professional and stuck to a good schedule for the most part today to maintain distance and not cross some more of those lines... but that was flying right back out the damn window it seemed.

Taking a seat on the sofa, she watched as Angel went for one of the large chairs off to the side. Silence hung heavy in the air around them.

"Where is your favorite place you have been?" she finally asked. 

His eyes almost sparkled at the simple gesture, "I don't really know... I mean, I haven't been many places... pretty much with art or back when I was doing my art I still stuck more or less to the West Coast, a few times I've been up North to New York, New Jersey and such... nothing really struck me as this is my favorite place ever I guess. I've only left the country once and that was just to go to Ireland and meet distant relatives, didn't even really sight see, it was more jumping from house to house in a small little countryside area. And at the time I was hardly impressed but I guess looking back it was kind of peaceful and nice."

"Maybe one of these days you should go back, really take the country in, go exploring. It is quite beautiful."

"Yeah, maybe. I keep in touch with a few great great this and that still every now and then. Maybe even before the end of this journey we could go," he dared.

Buffy looked down at the laces of her shoes and shrugged. "One trip at a time okay," she said softly. 

"Alright," he agreed, matching her tone.

OoOoO

Buffy's eyes glanced to the open page of her trust notebook then back to Angel. "What should I actually pack? Like, clothes? Toiletries? What do I need to get to not seem so... out of place?" she asked as their conversation shifted back to the impending vacation he sprung on them. 

"That would be a good start, yes. Just think about it as if you didn't have these magical fairy powers-"

"I'm not a fairy-"

"-And you didn't have the ability to just pop in and out of places like you do. Pretend that you're really having to pack for the whole trip and grab what you know you need to have and just whatever else you'd simply like to have with you."

"That's a very odd concept."

"And yet millions of people do it every day," he remarked back to her, earning an annoyed look in the process. "The more you think about it as a real thing the more it'd probably come together. Hell, maybe I should even challenge you to go about it like a regular ol' human.... for the whole trip, no magic allowed, pack whatever you need and bring it along, anything left behind that you later decide you want to have you either have to do without or buy new, no popping off back to wherever it is you go, that you have to stay put like everyone else... things like that."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Why not? It could be fun," he teased. 

"Because I will more than likely need to use some of my powers while we are there in order to help you in some way or another."

"There's ways around waving your little finger around and changing a light to red, causing someone to spill coffee, or trip over a suddenly loose tile or whatever. Not everything has to happen because of something otherwordly."

"Says the man who made a birthday wish and has a lady hanging around who he insists referring to as his fairy godmother..."

"Fair point, I suppose, but still!"

OoOoO

Before he even realized it, hours had passed, and yet the idea of her leaving still left a sinking feeling inside of him. Even with her having loosened up some, some of her iciness from today having gave way bit by bit. Sometimes he wondered if having her close yet so far away or having her put that wall up and only deal with him as needed would be the harder one to handle long term, but whatever way that tree did fall, he couldn't help but want to have as much with her as he could manage. 

He watched as she slipped her shoes back on, having discarded them some time ago to curl up at the arm of the couch more comfortably, before standing and stretching her back and arms out a bit. "Today felt impossibly long, at least for me it did. Hopefully tomorrow is a little easier... and maybe we can get you to call those girls tomorrow at some point?"

'So close,' he thought, hoping she'd forgotten completely. "Yeah, yeah."

"Don't get too excited about it or anything," she groused and all he could do was shrug back at her. "I'll see you tomorrow, Angel."

In order to keep up with his promise, he forced more pressure into keeping his feet in their place as she bid him farewell for the evening, the apartment feeling incredibly lonely the second she disappeared. He felt a bit like he'd been on some sort of emotional roller coaster these last couple of days, and honestly he still wasn't sure how he felt about it all. On one hand he was thrilled to be going on this adventure with her, but a part of him couldn't help but dwell on how different things could be if they were just able to give whatever was brewing between a chance. 

At least he had gotten her to open up a little, he definitely felt a little less crazy knowing he wasn't just imagining everything between them, but he again wasn't sure if knowing she was pretty much feeling the same way was better or worse in the long run. Though she had let him kiss her without completely freaking out and disappearing, which in the grand scheme of things wasn't much, but it was something and for tonight it was enough. 

OoOoO

The next few days went by in a blur, not wanting to risk pushing her further away, especially not before their trip, Angel had forced himself to behave. It was torture, but it seemed to be just what they needed. They were definitely in a better place than they were before. That icy wall she'd built between them had slowly crumbled as they quietly resumed the friendship they had been building, he had even managed to convince her to give up magic for the entirety of their trip. 

He'd had to agree to take Candace, or was it Cameron, he couldn't quite remember out to dinner tonight before their big flight in the morning, but it was a small price to pay if it meant getting ten days more or less alone with her. He nodded along, pretending to keep up with what the red head was talking about, he was trying to pay attention to be  _ invested _ as Buffy called it, but it was a hard thing to do when his mind was so wonderfully distracted. 

No magic meant that she would be staying with him at the hotel afterall, it had taken hours of prying but he had finally succeeded in getting her to voice where she would prefer to stay. Every time he asked, she would remind him that this trip was for him, it was his vacation, that he should stay where he wanted, and so on and so on. It wasn't until he started sabotaging each and every one of her attempted set ups this morning that she'd eventually caved, but even that was only after he'd let some poor girl fall flat on her face after a pen magically appeared under one of the ridiculously tall heels she had chosen to wear. 

The girl was fine, other than the bruise to her ego of course, but Buffy was mortified. She'd really torn into him for that one, which was fine by him, he was quickly learning how adorable she was when she got all worked up. So she'd fussed up, she wanted to stay somewhere  _ authentic _ was the word she had used. She told him that in her opinion it was pointless to travel somewhere so exotic only to book a room at the Hilton, or whatever hotel chain may be around. She wanted to make the most of the experience, and she thought that he just might get more out of it that way too. 

So instead of actually getting anything accomplished work wise, he'd spent the entire day holed up in his office searching for the perfect place. First and foremost he wanted to make sure that wherever they stayed was safe, he didn't know much about Africa, but that was all the more reason to take extra precautions. It was ridiculous, he knew that, but in all honesty he'd be lying of he didn't admit to of having more than one nightmarish vision of a lion or some other wild animal creeping up on them while they slept. 

He'd eventually stumbled across a resort called The Elephant's Eye, it was the ultimate blend of luxury and adventure. Each accommodation was its own separate structure, built on stilts roughly twenty feet or so from the ground, where you could literally walk outside in the morning and be greeted by herd of a elephants, drinking from one of the many watering holes within sight. It was an eco-friendly lodge, which meant that they wouldn't have access to televisions or any sort of electronics, but honestly that just made the place seem all that more appealing. 

It was gated and armed guards secured the perimeter, but the gate was set up in a way that you couldn't tell. Even though the place lacked electronics, it made up for it with its amenities, there was a swimming pool of course, a full spa, and they offered a laundry list of excursions which you could book straight through them, your very own personal driver included. A visit to the falls was a must, and as much as the idea terrified him, he'd booked the trip that included a swim in one of the small pockets over looking the falls edge. They could also take a real safari tour, visit a refuge center for injured or abandoned animals who had managed to escape poachers, there was even a restaurant they could visit high in the treetops, where giraffes were known to graze right outside, sometimes even taking a peek inside one of the windows to snag a piece of lettuce from a lucky diner. 

"Huh," Angel asked for the third time, completely missing what Charlotte had asked him. "Im sorry," he apologized, "It's just that I have a, uh, big trip coming up and I've allowed it to distract me, when my attention should have been focused on the beautiful girl in front of me." He reached across the table to grab one of her hands, while he quickly threw out one of those dazzling smiles which he'd learned at an early age could get him out of nearly anything, especially when it came to women. 

OoOoO

As much as it had seemed to drag on, the date went a little better once he forced himself to stay present. She seemed like a decent girl, and he was sure that she was going to make some guy out there very happy, it just wasn't going to be him. Carlie, he'd finally managed to figure out when they bumped into one of her girlfriends as they were walking out of the restaurant, had tried her hardest to seduce him, going so far as to invite him back to her place for coffee, for split second he had considered taking her up on the offer, after all this whole forced celibate route was starting to take its toll, but as quickly as he'd entertained the idea, he'd pushed it away. He didn't want some fling, and he definitely wasn't willing to risk hurting Buffy over something meaningless, already he was feeling enough over their kiss goodnight and he hadn't even been the one to initiate it. 

Walking back into his apartment, he kicked his shoes off to the side of the small foyer. He'd just begun to loosen his tie and pull it off when he noticed the small blonde curled up on the corner of his sofa. "How was your date," she asked, but he knew her better than she thought and he could hear the sadness behind her words. 

"It was fine," he answered slowly, making his way closer to her. 

Buffy closed the book in her hands and folded them over the cover when he sat beside her. "Just fine? You were gone longer than usual... I was hoping that was a good sign." 

Angel shrugged. "Service was slow, it felt like three bus loads suddenly showed up once we got seated."

"And what about the girl? Any sparkage?" she asked and he explained that she seemed nice enough, had made him laugh a few times over the course of their time together when he'd forced himself to actually pay attention to her, that he thought she was beautiful and sweet, if a little forward... but that he didn't feel the need for any follow up dates with her, that he didn't see any real future there. "Angel... you have dated before, right?"

He felt a tug at the corners of his mouth with her tone. "I have."

"And have you always been this much of a pain in the ass with trying to see whether or not you liked someone?"

His smirk won out. "No, but it was different then. I didn't have such high end goals to worry about. It's easy to just spend an evening with someone, date with no strings attached, hell just take home for a good time but if that's all I wanted then you wouldn't be here..."

OoOoO

Sometimes Buffy wondered what was going to wreck her more, the idea of Angel actually getting over this little crush of his and realizing what he truly wanted in life was out there once they crossed paths, or if that day never came. She was ninety nine percent sure it would be the latter when push came to shove, but sometimes she sure did question it. 

In her heart she knew that she wanted Angel to get everything he desired in this life, she wanted him to find love, to see him happy, to have one of those moments where they stood together and she heard him declare her services were no longer required and his wish had been fulfilled. To have a year go by and have to walk away knowing she couldn't help him get there would haunt her the rest of her days. She'd had very few instances where that had happened, usually if someone didn't get their ending it was because they made the choice to end things early, but she did not want to add him to that list. 

It was going to kill her inside either way, though. There was no denying that. 

Having Angel go on these dates he was absolutely uninterested in was already hard enough, sometimes she wasn't sure who she was pushing harder with them, who she was trying to convince more as she built each girl and the planned dates up. Especially this last one... the first he'd gone on since they'd kissed. Twice now. 

Her heart felt like it was in her throat the entire time as she waited. And then when he mentioned that his date had tried to get more than just dinner out of her date with him, she couldn't help but feel her blood rushing faster, jealousy gripping its hold on her. Angel had even made a joke about the kiss he'd apparently shared with his latest date, it caught her off guard with exactly how awful it made her feel. 

And yet she forced a smile and told him at least he was showing some progress.

OoOoO

When one of Angel's friends stopped by to surprise him with one last farewell, she easily popped out, heading home to make sure everything was in order there before morning came. While she had agreed to this little no magic allowed challenge they had agreed if an emergency came up there was always some exceptions, but she was kind of looking forward to the little game. She'd never really thought too much about not having powers or little things she found she used what she had to do little things here and there. 

Walking through the house, she double checked to make sure she had everything packed away for the trip, then piled her bags together on the bed and waited for Lindsey and Angel to get done. Laying out her clothes for tomorrow, she also grabbed a pair of pajamas to change into before drawing a bath. 

Lowering herself under the bubbles, she tried to just shut her mind off from worries about Angel, the trip, the Powers, and everything else.


	8. Chapter Eight

"You're acting nervous."

"Excited," Angel corrected as his eyes drifted over to where her bags sat beside his. He was sure before long it was going to kick him in the ass soon enough but he'd hardly even been able to sleep last night, his head too filled with ideas of what the next week and half could be filled with. 

She nodded. "Well, it's certainly the most alive I've seen you at this time of day," She looked around the room while he threw the last of his toiletries into his final bag once he was done with them. "I have a weird feeling that I'm forgetting something."

He chuckled. "That's normal. And you'll probably realize exactly what that something is about five minutes after we're in the air."

"That's encouraging."

"In my experience, that is just how things go," he shrugged before reminding her she was already on the clock for the plan of her not using any magic. 

"Yeah, yeah," she waved him off before asking him if he wanted to eat something quick here or what the plan for breakfast was. 

"Mmm, let's grab some overpriced coffee on the way out of town and go from there."

OoOoO

Not only had she never been on a plane, but she'd never been inside of an airport in all her time either, and she was finding it nothing but chaos as she walked along beside Angel. She was thankful he at least seemed to know what they were doing and where to go. 

Her eyes looked around as they walked, taking everything in while he listed off some places they still had time to stop in at and get something in their stomachs before take off when suddenly she caught a glimpse of someone and her whole body stopped moving. Angel made it several more feet ahead of her before realizing she wasn't walking alongside him anymore, he called her name several times before walking back. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, her heart squeezing in her chest as she watched the small group gathering together off in the distance. Once upon a time she had known the woman sitting there in the middle of it all, her arms reaching out for the youngest member of the family and dragging him onto her lap. 

It was one thing to know someone's wish came true, or to be able to take a look at their file even years and years down the line and see little tidbits added to the end and another to actually have the rare chance to see how things were holding up for one of her old charges with her very own eyes.

Following her line of sight he too watched the small family, at first he couldn't help but think of how awful it must be to travel with children, but then it hit him. "She's one of yours, isn't she?" Without thought his hand went to the small of her back, "One of the people whose wish you granted?" 

Leaning into his touch a bit she let out a long sigh just as who she assumed was Victoria's daughter came running back to her mother, a small lollipop in her hand. She nodded, not sure she was capable of forming words at the moment. She wasn't sure what had her so choked up, Victoria was a great girl, well at least she had been, she'd made wish on her eighteenth birthday, she was a bit younger than her normal charge, but Buffy had quickly learned that the girl had lived and been through more in her short eighteen years than most people had in their entire lives. 

A childhood leukemia survivor, her hair had only just begun to grow back when she first popped into her life. According to all of her doctors any wish she had for a family of her own down the line, should be thought about in more non-traditional ways. At the time the medical community hadn't even been sure surrogacy was an option, unsure of what the quality of her eggs would be after years of chemotherapy and the multitude of other drugs she had to take in order to survive. 

If she remembered correctly the poor girl had ended up with the captain of her high schools football team, admittedly it was a bit cliché and Buffy had had her reservations at first but the more she saw the two of them together the more she thought that just maybe he would end up being Victoria's happily ever after, after all. The whole kid thing was news to her though, even she couldn't perform miracles like that. Thinking back she tried to calculate how long ago it all had been, ten, fifteen years maybe, but there was no denying it, one way or another the two of them had successfully in creating the family she knew the girl desperately wanted, and judging from the two little one's bright red hair, and mother's eyes, she highly doubted they'd been forced into the route of adoption. 

Just then the small girl looked up and sent a shy wave in their direction, seeming to snap Buffy out of her trip down memory lane. Without even thinking Buffy's hand seemed to find its way to his, linking their fingers, she shook her head a bit, "Sorry," she muttered a bit embarrassed, though even she wasn't sure exactly why. 

"It's not a big deal," he shrugged, "It must be weird seeing someone you spent so much time with that doesn't even remember who you are." 

She nodded, squeezing his hand a little tighter, seeing Victoria, seeing her happy, that all made her ecstatic, it was literally the validation of a job well done. However in her current situation it was also a slapping reminder of just what she was getting herself into. Victoria got her happily ever after, she wasn't allowed that, and if things kept up the way they were going, she was becoming more and more certain Angel wasn't going to end up with his either. 

Sensing her thoughts, an ability he was afraid was starting to become all too natural to him, he shrugged off the small duffel bag he was carrying and let it fall to the floor as he pulled her fully against him. "Stop it," he whispered against her hair. 

"Stop what," she asked, even though they both knew exactly what he was talking about. 

Nudging her head back with his, he waited for her to finally look up at him. "Stop thinking that you're taking something away from me, or that you being around is only aiding me in a distraction." More than anything he wanted to kiss her again, to remind himself just how perfect she felt against his tongue, but they were only just starting this little journey and he feared it was a bit soon to be making any such bold move just yet. Instead his lips softly brushed against her forehead, "I can't help it," he grinned, the corners of his mouth lifting more with each word, "I'm afraid I just find you entirely too irresistible Mrs. Angelus." 

Rolling her eyes, she playfully pushed herself away from his chest and out of his arms. Sometimes she really had no idea what she was supposed to do with him. "Summers," she corrected once he'd picked up his abandoned bag and grabbed her hand all over again. Figuring it was pointless to object at this point, she just went with it, "My last name," she clarified.

"Summers," he repeated slowly, almost like he was testing the feel of it on his tongue. 

"What?"

He shook his head, "Nothing," that grin he'd been wearing giving way to one of his famous smiles that she could almost swear had the ability to light up the whole room. "I just like the sound of the other better."

"The other what…" she started confused, but then the full implications of what he was saying hit her, and she shoved at his arm again. "Don't even start mister, just because this is supposed to be a vacation doesn't mean I won't start reciting all those rules you just love to ignore." 

He rolled his eyes, "Ya, ya, trust me, I'm pretty sure I could recite the stupid things to you as many times as I've heard them." 

Thankful for the distraction, he tugged her towards the line for security. It was a good thing they had decided to come early, Buffy wanting some time to take it all in and all, because judging from the rows of people waiting to get through, they would be lucky if they got to their terminal within the hour. Sitting his own bag on top of her roller suitcase, he briefly wondered where her luggage had even come from, if she had bought it especially for their trip, or if it was just something she had lying around her place like normal people. Probably the former he'd decided draping his arms around her from behind, especially after their whole conversation regarding the odd concept of someone actually packing everything they may need before a trip. 

"We're supposed to be married, remember," he leaned down to whisper against her ear when he felt her tense a bit. It was a weak excuse, but it did hold a bit of merit, they were going through security after all, and it would probably look more than a little suspect if they were going back as though they didn't even know each other.

She giggled, "Or siblings."

He groaned, he didn't care how many universes, dimensions, galaxies or whatever the hell existed out there, he was absolutely positive that they were not siblings in a single one. "I don't think so," he told her. He doubted it would be anything anyone really looked to any which way... but there was no way he, at the very least, could pull of pretending to be any sort of relative to her if his life depended on it. All feeling he had toward her were far from brother and sister bonds and anyone who spent even a few seconds in their presence were bound to pick up on that, too. 

Buffy laughed harder, just letting that sit. 

After that point she didn't engage with him still, with any of his small passing touches or small comments he would make, but she didn't push him away either. The most he got were a couple of eye rolls and one annoyed stare down when they had stopped to eat, having finally found something that look appetizing as they walked through the rest of airport. By the time they'd finally made it through security he was damn near starving.

OoOoO

Normally, Angel found that he hated airports, flying weren't his go-to means of travel either but it wasn't always avoidable. The actual flying part never bothered him, short trips had been enjoyable even a number of times, but there was always so much rushing around, crowds, usually having a horrible time trying to find where he needed to be... usually he would go in as late as he could manage to just get in and out but not today. The nearly full day ahead of flying and the trip itself didn't seem like enough, plus he knew Buffy was worried about how this would all go, so he'd made sure to arrive earlier than he would as if he were alone. 

And he couldn't have been happier with that decision. 

There was something endlessly entertaining about simply watching Buffy in this setting... she was so fascinated with just sitting there, watching the crowds of various people everywhere you turned, she'd smile brightly at the families reuniting, make funny cringe faces at the parents so close to losing it while their kids were running wild in the little waiting area across from them, for awhile she'd entertained him with guessing games about the random strangers around... where they were going, why, how their flight was bound to go... 

Every now and then her nerves would slip through and he was almost equally endeared with how she would ask him to confirm their seating, the times for when they were supposed to do one thing or another, what was allowed on the flight and not. 

OoOoO

Angel insisted she take the window seat so she could get "the full experience of take off" so she quickly sat, looking out, taking in the view from the lot, watching the large cart of bags getting closer, a few scattered people walking about. Her stomach felt tight with nerves and excitement that she wasn't quite used to. 

All of today seemed to be giving her those feelings actually. She'd never really worried too much about fitting in anywhere, especially not in the human realm. She had really never thought twice about if she seemed out of place to others in general but there was something about this whole idea of being more or less stuck on the flight for nearly a full days worth and this whole no magic challenge he'd put out there that had her second guessing herself quite a bit. It was like she kept waiting for someone to point out she didn't belong her, and she'd never really worried about that before. 

Today was in general a very strange experience already. 

"I need my notebook," she told Angel when he reached for her bigger bag to put it away. 

He paused and shook his head. "No you don't."

"Angel-"

"No, because anything you want to write down I already know you have memorized in that pretty little head of yours. No, because you're not going to spend the whole time obsessing over women on this flight or how to hook me up with them. No, because we have all the time in the world to deal with that... we can enjoy at least some time just... being."

Her eyes narrowed, "We don't have all the time in the world," she corrected him.

His rolled, finishing with the bags and taking his seat next to her. "We still have the better part of a year. It's going to be okay. Enjoy yourself a little, alright?"

She sighed, sure that arguing with him would get them nowhere, and that little voice inside of her quickly reminded herself of the last time she'd tried this whole lightening up and enjoying herself without being fully focused on the mission at hand. "Fine. What am I supposed to do then?"

Angel smiled, patting her hand. "You sit and you make small talk with me, you wait for everyone to get loaded on here and in their seats, the airplane to be given the go ahead. You wait for all the flight instructions to be demonstrated. You relax. You talk about our plans and how excited you are."

OoOoO

As the plane started to move, her eyes stared out the window, her fingers moving on their own to grip around the armrests to either side of her. 

"It's okay," Angel said softly, linking his hand with hers closest to him. 

She nodded but couldn't seem to say or do anything as they started to lift away from the safety of the ground, and it all seemed like a blur there for awhile as they got higher and higher, houses and buildings all getting smaller and smaller, the view getting grander by the moment. 

Finally looking away and back toward Angel, she smiled brightly, "Okay, this is pretty fun."

He chuckled and asked her to keep that in mind when a few more hours had passed, then he went on to asking her questions she knew he knew better than to ask and for the millionth time explaining to him in harsh whispers that she wasn't a fairy and that she didn't have wings when he started going off the deep end with flying by other means questions. 

OoOoO

Blinking slowly, Angel tried to put together exactly when he had apparently drifted off and how much time had passed since, with one eye opening he noticed the same movie he'd been watching earlier was still going so figured it couldn't have been much of a nap, then his eyes shifted over to the seat next to him and he felt his whole chest start to squeeze as he took in Buffy's own sleeping form. 

'How am I supposed to not be in love with you?' he thought before quickly telling himself it wasn't love, it was just... something. 

Shaking those thoughts away, he continued to take her in, the slight soft puffiness to her face, how her lips barely stayed parted, the light breathing noises that came between them. 

Brushing a few strands of loose hair out of her face first, he covered her up in a requested blanket, hoping she wouldn't wake up too uncomfortable with how she was huddled up in the small seat. He'd splurged, wanting to give her the best experience, so they were in first which meant their seats were far more comfortable than those of the unfortunate passengers behind them, but it was still leaps away from what he'd consider a luxurious sleeping arrangement. 

Wanting to give her a bit more room to stretch out, he lifted the small armrest between them. Pushing the little button to recline their seats he chuckled as she mumbled a few unintelligible phrases, then held his breath when without warning she turned to curl against his side. As if he had a choice, he let his arm fall around her, her head now pillowed against his chest he shifted in his seat until he too was as comfortable as he was going to get. Though with her in his arms, he wasn't quite sure he could be convinced to be anywhere else regardless.

OoOoO

Angel had woken before Buffy again, and he briefly wondered if she'd been getting enough rest with all the back and forth she'd been pulling between his world and hers. Somehow she had managed to snuggle even closer to him while they slept, her arm locked firmly around his waist he couldn't have moved if he tried. Glancing at his watch, he noted that they had managed to knock out nearly three hours of the flight so far. He wasn't sure how, but he was almost certain that was the best sleep he'd had since she came fluttering into his life. 

He wasn't sure just how well he was supposed to be behaving during this little adventure of theirs, but he hoped that she relaxed, if only a little in regards to her whole hands off approach. He had made sure to specify a bungalow with double beds, but that still meant they were going to be sleeping within the same four walls and he'd been worried about that since about the moment after she'd agreed to it all. He wasn't some animal that couldn't control himself or anything but having her so close and yet so fucking far was going to be a brand new kind of torture. 

The first thing she realized as consciousness started to claim her, was the warm body pressed so intimately against her. Without even opening her eyes she knew whose chest she was smushed up against, recent memories trickled in, one after another. Their trip, the flight, her promise to forego all magic, his inability to keep her out the forefront of his mind, and her distinct lack of control whenever it came to absolutely anything concerning him. 

"Mmm," she groaned, forcing herself away from him, while silently praying to all the powers that she hadn't drooled or done something else incredibly embarrassing, like snore. "Sorry," she mumbled, but Angel shook his head, seemingly in some sort of trance he leaned his head just enough to brush his lips across hers. Per usual what he'd intended to be chaste, soon had them both panting near desperate, and momentarily forgetting where they were. 

Swallowing hard when they finally broke apart, he threaded their fingers together, her face about matched the thin red zip up she was wearing, but he found her positively adorable nonetheless. Plus after the last few times he'd found himself losing control he couldn't help but be grateful that she couldn't go and disappear on him. 

Not sure she would ever get used to the way her whole entire being seemed to pulse when they kissed, a feeling she was also growing far too accustomed too. Much to his surprise, not only did she not completely disappear or jump up and run off, letting out a long sigh, she laid her head back against his shoulder. "We really have to stop doing that, ya know?" 

His own head tilted to lean against the top of hers, "For the life of me I can't seem to remember a single reason why," he whispered, breathing her in. He smirked against her hair, "I mean that's what the second or third time now," he waved around, "No rain of fire yet." 

"Fourth," she corrected without thinking, "I mean," she stumbled, lowering her voice she continued, "Not that I'm keeping track or anything." 

What the hell was she doing, losing her freaking mind that's what. For all the pep talks she'd given herself these last twenty-four hours she sure was allowing the exact opposite to go down between them. Already there was no question they'd completely sabotaged any chance he had with that cute little auburn girl a few rows across from them. Judging from her envious glare, there was no doubt in her mind she'd been witness to their transgression. 

So lost in her own thoughts, she almost hadn't even noticed the flight attendant approach. Angel being the little sneak that he was, slid one of his hands around her thighs as they listened to their flights dinner options, not wanting to cause a scene or draw any unwanted attention she tried to ignore the small tingle it seemed to ignite inside her belly. 

After a bit of back and forth each of them finally decided on the pasta, neither too much trusting the quality of meat on a plane. Plus, Angel had ordered them each a drink, something else he knew that she usually steered clear from. It wasn't that alcohol was forbidden or anything, if it was she was pretty sure Doyle and Lorne both would have been cast out long ago, but it was just something she had never really grown a taste for. Not to mention the couple of times the guys had peer pressured into giving it a try, she'd ended up with her head draped over the edge of a toilet bowl while she prayed to whoever that might listen to spare her life. 

And yet here she was, with a full selection of miniature wine bottles displayed before her, well at least as much of a selection that was available on the aircraft anyway. Angel kept pouring a few sips into one of the clear plastic cups the stewardess had provided to let her try while they waited for their food to be prepared. So far they had discovered that she was not a fan of anything red, dry, or sparkling. Judging by the look on her face, whites seemed to be her favorite, though from the way she was giggling he couldn't tell if she was actually enjoying the flavor, or if the alcohol had already obliterated her taste buds. 

"Easy," he warned when she forewent the cup all together to sip straight from the bottle. The last thing he wanted to do was cause her to get sick on a plane, he couldn't really think of a worse start to their vacation if he were being honest. 

Never more grateful to receive a couple of plates of pre cooked pasta, he made sure to ask for a couple of water bottles before the attendant took off. Buffy was far from drunk, but he could definitely tell she was feeling the effects, not that he minded, especially not with the way she was suddenly more touchy-feely with him, or how any lingering doubt in his mind about what her feelings toward him might be all seemed to quickly disappear with her lowered defenses, with every lust filled glance she shot his way, how her every expression when she looked at him seemed to completely convey the battle going on inside of her with her own wants when it came to him and what it was that she was supposed to be doing. 

Swallowing audibly, he told her she should try to eat at least a little of her meal to try and keep her stomach better balanced. When their attendant returned, he opened one water bottle for himself then hers before setting it up beside her plate. 

After getting her to take a few bites, Buffy leaned impossibly close and whispered something along the lines that their meal wasn't the best she'd ever had. He would have probably chuckled at her and the pouty tone she'd taken but he found himself lost in haze instead, not daring to move an inch as she didn't pull away after the quick complaint. Instead, she seemed to be in a trance of her own, staring at him from the mere inches away where she sat, her breath warm against his skin. 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see her arm starting to come up, fingers itching to reach for him, and he held his breath waiting to see what she would do. Disappointment flooded him however when she snapped out of it, her hand jerking back and she pulled herself back together. "You told me not to bother with bringing along any snacks and I'm starting to resent you for it," she muttered, picking back at her food. 

He dared a better glance at her, promising she could get whatever snacks she wanted on the flight that they offered, and he would do his best to make up for the less than stellar meals once they were back on the ground. 


	9. Chapter Nine

"I think you have an admirer."

Buffy groaned. "If you mean the lady behind us burning holes into us, I don't think there's much admiration there. I'm actually pretty sure she's trying to figure out the best way to murder me on this flight and get away with it."

Angel raised an eyebrow, wondering what that was all about but he shook his head. "No," he said gently before nudging her a little for attention. Tipping his head some, he nodded toward the young, blonde boy who was with a man who Angel assumed was his father on the other side of the aisle. 

Buffy's face gained a slow smile as she watched the young boy try to sneakily look back at her way several times, a blush staining his cheeks the last couple of times once he noticed she was on to him. She smiled bigger, waving her fingers at him and saying "Hi." He wasn't sure the boy even heard her, it sounded like a whisper even to him sitting directly beside her. He watched the two of them interact a few more times before his dad seemed to have figured out the issue with his headphones and got them situated back on the boy's head. 

"Do you grant wishes for kids? I mean... I wouldn't assume so but..."

"Umm.. well, not typically, it's pretty rare... little kids like that don't generally know what they want out of life, at least not in the long run, not beyond the latest cool toy or video game or whatever, or do they typically have any idea as to what their happily ever after might consist of. Not usually something they're too worried about yet. Teenagers even aren't your usual age for a charge, at least not in this realm, but it happens... it's just anyone younger than that is few and far between. I've only had one, who that boy up there is probably the same age as. Kids also don't have the best hush hush record... his family decided I was an imaginary friend trying to make sense of what he was going on about." 

"Do you know who you would go to next?"

Her head shook. "There's too many factors for that. Someone might not have wished yet, you never know how long one job may take, the seer only lets you know when he does and it's always been way too wide of a range there to have any sort of heads up about what's happening next. It's pretty much when he gets a vision and whatever message from it or along with it, then you know. I could be assigned the day our journey ends, a day later, a month later. There's not really much of a schedule there. At least not one I've figured out yet."

OoOoO

Buffy wasn't entirely sure she liked this new effect the alcohol had on her. She got the appeal, and right now was better than the previous attempts at drinking which only resulted in a lot of sickness, but she was scared at the lack of control she earned from it. It was like she was floating at times and was doing or saying things without really meaning to. 

Especially after trying some again, she found herself touching him way more than she would assume appropriate... her fingertips seemed to have a mind of their own, always lightly wrapping around his wrist or arm, her head finding its way to lean against his shoulder, hell at one point she'd practically crawled into his lap, throwing her legs over him and cuddling up to him as they pretended to pay attention to whatever was playing on their screens. 

And Angel was absolutely no help at all with keeping herself in check, he'd happily let her link their fingers together, or would move in closer to her, his hands would rest atop her legs... When she'd get lost in simply staring at him, it was like he pretended to ignore her at first every time, and then he would turn, eyes would lock and he'd look at her like he was almost daring her to do something. 

Splashing some water on her face then drying off, she finished up in the tiny bathroom and started back for her seat. She wasn't sure she was going to survive this trip, let alone the flight to begin with. There was too much time together happening and too little space to flee to, way too much bonding between them as they found themselves sharing random stories or playing "Top Five" with one another, and way too little time and energy being put into the mission at hand. 

Neither of them had even brought up his happily ever after wish since boarding. She'd meant to, many, many times over... but it was one of those things added to the list of words she held at the tip of her tongue but didn't dare speak out loud... wanting to hold on to this little bubble they were in for just a bit longer.

OoOoO

"You should draw me something," Buffy said as both her arms wrapped around his. She had basically given up even trying to keep her hands to herself at this point, for the flight anyways, at least that's what she kept telling herself. He was right they had a whole lot of days of togetherness ahead of them, and she was sure there would be plenty of opportunities to set him up with whichever cutie happened to cross their path. They deserved this little reprieve, or that's what the wine kept helping to convince her of. 

"Or I could just draw you."

His fingertips danced along the inside of her thigh, which was halfway across his own to begin with, he never would have thought a full grown adult could manage to sit criss cross in an airline seat, yet here she was. Sometimes he forgot just how small she really was, the more they indulged in the unlimited drinks that came with first class, the bolder each of them became. He was still holding out though, and he knew it was starting to drive her wild. She'd almost kissed him again when they got into an argument over how to spell something during a game of hangman. Again, he'd froze, wanting her to make that first move, needing her to affirm the last of these swirling doubts his mind kept conjuring up. 

If it were possible, her cheeks turned an ever deeper shade of pink, cutting her eyes she gave him her best glare. "Mm," she lowered her voice, and once again he found himself holding his breath, forcing his body to stay still as her breath tickled his ear. "Careful now," she picked up one of the small plastic bottles of Moscato, "Another one of these little things and I might just let you." 

His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, his eyes widened, and he was fairly certain that every drop of blood in his body abandoned his brain to rush South. Clearing his throat, he picked up his own cup and took a long sip of the whiskey he'd switched to, never really having had a taste for wine himself. Spotting the attendant out the corner of his eye, he flashed Buffy a quick smile as he grabbed the empty bottle from in front of her and held up in the air, silently signaling that they were in need of another. 

Practically crawling in his lap, she all but scaled up his arm trying to snatch the bottle back from him. "Okay," she huffed, finally giving up, his arms were just long for his own good, and it he hadn't exactly played fair, what with wrapping his free hand around her to pin her against him either. "You win, but this is the last one," she glared, "For real this time." She clamped her teeth together a few times, "My teeth are starting to do that thing where I can't feel them, and last time that happened I ended up hugging the toilet, not exactly how I imagined this little flight of ours ending," she grimaced. 

"Don't worry," he murmured softly, "I've got the perfect cure for that." 

Motioning to the flight attendant one more time, his hold on her never lessened, if anything it grew a bit tighter, as he quickly ordered them another round of drinks as well as a couple more water bottles, and whatever snacks they had available. 

She really should move, sit up, put some distance between them, and quite possibly take a nap. But be it the wine or their unspoken reprieve from reality they'd so obviously granted themselves she just couldn't bring herself too. Actually instead of moving away, her small fingers, all on their own it seemed, slipped beneath the bunched up fabric of his shirt to lightly scratch at the small hairs leading down from his belly button. 

OoOoO 

Well that last bottle of wine hadn't made her sick, but all of the alcohol seemed to finally catch up to her, and judging from the small amount of drool falling from the corner of her mouth, it wouldn't surprise him if she was out for the duration of the flight. Especially now that they had officially passed the halfway mark, all things considered he was pretty buzzed his damn self, but he still didn't want to fall asleep. He didn't want this little cocoon they had both silently built around themselves to disappear, and he feared that even though they would be on vacation together, once they touched land again it would all change. 

Though no matter the drinks, the travel, or whatever they couldn't exactly just erase these hours from their minds either. Had he any question in regards to her feelings before, he didn't now, hell if he were being honest with himself he had felt more like a couple, more like her partner these last several hours than he had in the entirety of his last relationship. 

Which he didn't even want to imagine what kind of problems that was going to cause when she started in on her whole date process again. He'd only thought making it through her little setups were difficult before, now he couldn't even imagine entertaining the idea of holding another woman, of kissing one, of somehow developing feelings for anyone that wasn't her. There was definitely a conversation to be had sooner rather than later he hoped, but he also wanted to be careful. He didn't want to scare her, or send her into some tailspin about how all of this was a mistake, or worse push her into up and leaving, but they couldn't just keep carrying on in this limbo either. 

OoOoO

Snuggling deeper under the small blanket, she tried to fight off reality for a bit longer. It wasn't that she didn't know she was dreaming, she was completely aware, it was just that she didn't care. In her dreams nothing mattered, not her job, not her destiny. She didn't have charges or some crazy list of rules from the powers to follow. All that mattered was him, and how he felt beneath her palm. It was kind of weird, she knew that she would never be this brave in real life, but again what happened in dreams didn't have to matter, she could be anything she wanted, she could do anything she wanted, she could touch him any way she wanted. 

"Does it hurt," she asked softly, gripping him gently through his pants, her eyes staying locked on his very obvious arousal. She had to admit she found it kind of fascinating, the way it seemed to have a life all of its very own. Alternating between lightly squeezing him, and tracing the large outline with her finger, her eyes went wide when it seemed to move all by itself. 

Angel's head rocked from side to side, terrified that if he made a sound she would stop, or all of this would disappear, or something. It all felt a bit hazy, almost like they were stuck in some sort of dream, but everything she was doing, every touch couldn't have felt more real. His hips arched into her palm when she tried to grip him again, some voice inside him wondering why as good as those former dreams were of the faceless form of this woman years back, or even the ones he'd had since her entering into his life properly why couldn't all of them feel exactly like this. 

He fought against the edges of consciousness trying to gain control but eventually they won out, and with his awakening he found the answer to such a question apparent as he continued to feel the warmth of her hand against him. Eyes popping open, he looked down at his lap, seeing the small movements of her hand against him underneath their conjoined mess of blankets laying out atop them both. 

A glance in her direction showed Buffy was still peacefully sleeping beside him. And he was sure the proper thing to do here was probably trying to ease her hand away or wake her up, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to any of that. His eyes rolled back into his head and he let out a long, choppy breath of air, just finding himself lost in the fact his dreams were more a reality in the moment.

Buffy found herself on the losing end of trying to keep from fully entering back into the real world but there was something about the strangled sound coming from beside her that tipped her over that edge. Blinking a few times, her face scrunched up at whatever was going on with Angel... but her mouth fell open in a perfect o shape, her eyes going wide as she realized what she was apparently doing in her state of sleep. Green eyes quickly flipped down to where her fingers continued to explore some of the parts of his body she found herself most interested in, gathering she was acting pretty damn close to how she'd been off in the dream world, even as she realized just what she was doing. 

Her eyes stayed trained on the little bumps that would move from under the blanket, thinking to herself that they sure hadn't been in the way in her damn dream.

Another one of those little sounds came from between Angel's lips, seemingly snapping her out of her little trance. Her face flushing, her hand jerked away from him quickly, as if he were a fire burning her, and she pushed her entire body as close to the window and wall of the plane, away from him. "S-sorry," she stumbled, clearing her throat. "I-I was dreaming..."

"About  _ this _ ?" he questioned, his voice far too low and husky and just the smallest hint of amusement hidden in there. 

Feeling herself go from ghost pale to as bright as a tomato, she repeated how sorry she was but anything she planned to say or do after that point were cut short as Angel managed to untangle himself, reach over to grab her, lifting her up in the air as if she were nothing and pulling her right back to him. 

Angel's name fell from her lips more like a gasp than the warning she had intended, and only a number of milliseconds seemed to pass before she felt the digging sensation in either hip, quickly dragging her as close as had to be possible in the moment. Another muffled moan came from her as she felt his twitching erection press so intimately against her as she straddled him, the upper part of Angel's body leaning forward enough to capture her lips, kissing her relentlessly until they were both gasping desperately for air. 

Pulling back enough to be able to look at him, her hips continued to move on their own accord in small motions, the sensation taking over her right now was unlike anything she'd ever had to deal with before. Hell, even that morning together back in his bed didn't even come close to a comparison to what was happening right now. Angel's eyes were so dark staring at the rise and fall from her heavy breathing, and obviously she'd up and decided to lose her mind because before she could even put together anything that was happening, her head dipped back down to him, uncaring about any basic need their bodies may have for oxygen or not. Uncaring about anything at this point beyond how he tasted and how he felt up against her.

OoOoO

Angel barely even registered the flight attendant's attempts to get their attention, the few times she'd tried to clear her throat, or tried saying "excuse me sir" or "excuse me ma'am," how she tried to gently remind them that this was a "family friendly flight." He couldn't have cared any less where they were right now, who saw what, if it was deemed appropriate or not. All he knew was he was pretty sure heaven couldn't compare to what was happening in this seat and that he would happily give up a limb or two if that meant it didn't have to come to an end.

Unfortunately, it seemed the curly haired woman dead set on ruining the best moments of his entire life seemed to have broken through to Buffy however and she practically jumped away from him, nearly falling in the process. "Sorry," she muttered to the woman then again to him. Her hand flew up to her swollen lips, poking at them for a moment before excusing herself, heading back toward the bathrooms he assumed. 

And hoped that was all.

Clearing his throat, he tried apologizing to her as well but she wound up just shrugging and made a few comments how they weren't the first young couple in love and too hot and heavy in one another she'd had to deal with up here in the skies. "Just try and keep it together, we're in the home stretch here."

Nodding, he ran a hand down his face before glancing again in the direction Buffy had disappeared to. Letting out a sigh, he checked the time and muttered to himself that she hadn't been kidding about how close they had to be to the airport now. Leaning over, he peered out the window, wondering exactly what he had gotten himself into after all with this trip.

OoOoO

When she finally forced herself to stop hiding in the bathroom, she walked on still wobbly legs back to her seat, avoiding eye contact with Angel as he stood up to let her get past him, her body feeling hot all over again at their close contact. 

"I think we can officially mark drinking off of any and all lists of things we should do together or in one another's presence  _ ever  _ again," she said, as even as she could force the words to come out as. Angel didn't reply, just continued to burn a hole in her. 

The urge to throw herself off of this plane, or to already lose out on this little competition of no magic and snap herself back home, to hide in the bathroom until they landed - if not forever - sounded more and more like a good idea by the second. She couldn't believe she had acted out like that, that she hadn't put some sort of stop to his own bold actions, that instead she had basically encouraged them. 

So lost in berating herself she nearly came out her skin when Angel threaded his fingers with her own. She took a deep breath ready to go on one of her famous tangents as to why they needed to get a grip on themselves, but the words stuck on the tip of her tongue as she watched him raise their conjoined hands to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. 

"Can we please stop pretending that there's nothing going on between us?" 

Her gaze fell, but she didn't pull away. He was right this whole game they were playing at just wasn't working, but she didn't see how admitting that was supposed to make any of this any easier. She'd never felt anything close to the way he made her feel, not just physically either, no one, not even Doyle had ever got her, had never seemed to understand all of her little quirks quite the way he did. 

"Angel," she tried to warn, he shook his head, but she still tried to argue, "We've been over this a dozen times, you know it doesn't work this way."

"Tell me you don't want me to kiss you again."

That caught her off guard, "Wh-what?"

"Tell me you don't want me to kiss you again, tell me that you didn't feel whatever that was between us. Tell me," he smirked, "That you weren't dreaming of doing exactly what you woke up doing to me." 

She could feel her chest rising and falling again, every breath seemingly heavier than the last. Swallowing hard she tried her best to shake the memories that his words were conjuring. "I can't," she finally admitted after a long pause. "But that still doesn't change anything," she added sadly. 

"Come here," Angel whispered, then tugged her into his side when she refused to move. Not sure he could handle seeing her cry, he pressed his lips to the top of her hair, his thumb rubbing small circles against her side. He was just as confused, if not more so as to where they should go from here. Difference was, there wasn't anything or anyone out there that scared him, that this hold over him the way these damn powers had over her. As far as he was concerned there wasn't anything he wouldn't risk to be with her, maybe he had it all wrong, maybe they wouldn't go riding off into the sunset and live happily ever after, maybe she wasn't his soul mate or whatever you wanted to call it, but what he did know was that they would never know if they didn't at least give whatever was brewing between them a fair chance.

Her ear pressed firmly against his chest, she listened to the sound of his heart beat so long that she was pretty sure they were breathing in sync. For once she didn't have an answer, didn't know what to say or do to fix the situation they'd found themselves in. She didn't know what love was, not really, the only love she had experienced had been through written notes on paper, little green check marks inside of boxes next to names on a list. She hadn't the first clue what it actually felt like, but if she had to guess she would imagine that at least a part of it felt like she had when she was pressed so intimately against, or they way her heart seemed to pound every time he kissed her, or looked at her with that fire behind his eyes, like she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. 

Logically she knew that she should walk away from this, hell logically she knew that she should fucking run in the other direction as fast as she could, snap her fingers, find Doyle, and demand he finish fulfilling Angel's wish. But she couldn't, and the reason wasn't only because she worried it may result in Angel having to forfeit his wish, no, the bigger reason she couldn't walk away was simply because she didn't want to. Because he was right, even before today, before the flight or the alcohol, in the back of her mind she'd done nothing but replay how he'd tasted, how he had felt against her, and how fucking badly she wanted to feel it all over again even if it cost her everything. 

"I really don't know what would happen," she whispered so softly he hadn't been sure he'd heard anything at all for a second. 

Nudging her head a little, he waited for her to look back at him. His heart thundered, he was so used to her shooting him down spouting off rules, listing this reason or that as to why anything ever happening between them was impossible, "What would happen," he repeated slowly. 

She nodded, unlocking her hand from his, she wiped at the few tears that gathered in the corner of her eyes. "There's been cases before, where people like me have developed what was deemed to be inappropriate relationships with their charge. Now I don't know if it's ever been anything like what we've been doing but that's what I'd imagine it was," a tiny blush crept over her cheeks, "Or more," she added quickly. "But whenever it happens, if we're found guilty, then from everything I've gathered we just disappear." 

"Disappear?"

She nodded against him, and again his hold seemed to tighten, "I don't know what happens, no one does, at least not that I'm aware of. All I know is that their places are cleared out, all of their jobs are reassigned, after a while everyone just sort of forgets about them, and then eventually their names become more of a legend than anything really." 

No wonder she was so damn terrified every time something happened between them. Yet again, Angel wondered if these so called powers were all they were cracked up to be, if she was really even working for the good guys. There wasn't a religion, not that he had ever heard of at least where the higher power seemed so damn spiteful. "I would never let anything happen to you Buffy, I swear. I don't care if I have to face Lucifer himself, no one's going to zap you from existence, as far as I'm concerned you can just stay with me from here on out. Screw these powers and whoever the hell else thinks they can control you, you deserve happiness and it fucking cuts me up inside to hear you say that you're too scared to experience it." 

Her fingers had somehow managed to find their way back beneath his shirt to scratch at the small patch of hair on his stomach. "That's the point, this little journey isn't about my happiness, it's supposed to be about yours, remember?" 

"Ya well," he sighed, "I'm pretty sure the universe has been trying to tell me for a long time now that it's you I belong with. The paintings, the dreams, can you honestly tell me it's all just some big coincidence?" 

Shifting a little, she sat up a bit and turned so she could face him, she was standing on the edge of a cliff here, and she wished she knew jumping off of it would end in with breaking the surface of safe water below, coming up for air and laughing hysterically, just being so thankful she made the jump, took the risk... rather than taking that leap and winding up hitting every rock on the way down and winding up broken and bloody at the end. 

She had told herself countless times now all the reasons they couldn't be more, she had told Angel many of them time and time again as well, even mentioning the unknowns surrounding what happened to those who dared to break such rules twice now even, and despite all of that... it wasn't as simple anymore. It wasn't as easy as saying "we can't do this because it's against the rules" and that being that, not anymore, at least not with him. 

Angel was very sweet and brave in his declaration to make sure nothing happened but she also knew that if The Powers decided, and she was sure they would, that whatever was destined to happen to her would... and he would simply have all those memories of her wiped away and think none the wiser... and that would be that. If he didn't remember her... then there wouldn't be anything he could do, would even know to want to do. 

"Angel, I don't know why any of that happened, or why everything feels so different with you than anyone else I have ever met," she admitted, "Maybe it is all some sort of test for me to sink or swim if put into a situation like this. Maybe someone somehow figured out how to put visions or whatever out there for you... for whatever reason or another. I am sure somewhere there is a reason for it all, I just have no idea what it might be. My friend who I have looking into it... I haven't even heard from him once since he went digging. And while that isn't exactly cause for ringing any alarms or anything with how well I know him and because of some of his other roles... I can't help but be a little concerned all the same if I get to thinking about it too much... I don't know if someone or something was trying to make sure our paths crossed or whatever, but at the end of the day... Angel, I'm here solely to help you get your wish granted, to find some happily ever after. And it would make absolutely no sense for that to be here with me."

"I would trade whatever idea I went into thinking was what I wanted to at least see what this between you and me could turn out to be, Buffy."

Giving him a small smile, "No refunds, no trades, no offering your wish to someone else later..." she rambled on for a moment, her heart feeling heavier by the passing second. 

"I know the rules," he almost whispered back to her. "But it still stands. I think there's something bigger at play with you and me and I would rather explore that than anything else," he continued before leaning down closer to her, his heart racing when after a moment of internal debate seemed to be playing out inside that pretty little head of hers, she closed her eyes and met him the rest of the way, melting into him.

OoOoO

With a large sigh, Lorne sat down at the table across from Doyle, who did nothing but raise his dark eyebrows at the green demon. "How much do you know about what's going on with a certain little blonde we both know?"

Doyle slowly took a sip from his cup before sitting back. "She's not came to me about anything but... there's bits and pieces to gather some basics about her and this Angel fella of hers."

Lorne reached into his pocket for a moment before sliding the drawing Buffy had given him over to the seer. "He apparently had been having visions and dreams about her for years prior to her being assigned his case"

Doyle let out a breath slowly, letting that sink in. "Well, that's new." He thought back to what visions he had seen and how on edge Buffy had been the last few times their paths had crossed, he couldn't blame her much for being spooked. As far as he knew, anything even remotely close to what Lorne was describing was unheard of.

Lorne nodded. "Yeah," he agreed. "And apparently, from all I have been able to gather, would be well beyond anything any of us around here would have been able to pull off."

Doyle agreed, starting to list off a few of the higher ups but Lorne shot each of them down, saying he'd already barked up all of those trees as far as he could. "Maybe it's something straight from the top?"

"Or close enough to the top that I doubt I could even get close enough to information about. I feel like everything was either dead ends, sending me off chasing my tail, or were just walls between me and it. I wish I had found at least something more concrete to bring back for her." 

"Someone, whoever it may be, obviously wanted to put them together.... the who, why, how may not be as clear but I think it's safe to assume this wasn't all some sort of fluke accident. And wherever all of this leads... it's bound to shake up everyone's world from what little I have seen and been putting together."

"Yeah... but for better or for worse? And what the hell is that supposed to mean for her?"

OoOoO

As their plane lowered closer and closer to the ground, preparing for landing at the new airport, Angel couldn't help but feel a mixture of excitement but also dread, he couldn't seem to squash the anxiety swirling around that Buffy would take one step off of the plane, or that as soon as fresh air hit her, and she would shut down on him all over again, she'd be all business and that was that. 

In absolutely no way did he want to scare her, or to get her in trouble with whoever all these higher ups were, but his feelings for her weren't going away either, this want to be around her, to be with her, it didn't come with some on and off switch. At the heart of it, he knew now more than ever that hers didn't either. 

He knew she was sent to him only because of some magical drawing of names out of hats or whatever when he made that wish, but he couldn't help but feel like he was responsible for the unspoken one inside of her, too. The one to be seen, to have a real connection to someone, to feel what she got to watch everyone else experience over and over again. 


	10. Chapter Ten

Buffy remained seated as every other passenger besides her and Angel exited the aircraft before finally unbuckling the seatbelt laid out across her lap and stood up. Angel followed close behind as she navigated toward their exit, she still had no idea what to expect and her stomach still felt like it had a hundred butterflies swarming inside of it, but she had to admit it felt damn good to be back on solid ground after so long. Now she understood why she had always heard humans talking about how exhausting it was to travel, hell her and Angel had even slept a good portion and still nothing sounded better than a warm bed right about then. 

Not to mention she hadn't the slightest clue what time it was, between the long flight and the massive time difference she wasn't even sure which dimension she was in. Finding baggage claim, grabbing their luggage, meeting up with their escort to the resort, it had all been sort of a blur. 

Climbing into the back of the small jeep like car which was to take them to the resort, she let out a big sigh once their bags were finally loaded and Angel was sitting back beside her. "You know, this whole travel bit of business is exhausting." 

He chuckled settling in beside her and linking their fingers back together. She didn't even bother to give him the side eye about it this time, there was no use. Instead she rested her head back against his shoulder, "I hope wherever we're going believes in coffee," she teased. 

OoOoO

It didn't take long for that rush of adrenaline to kick back in, the further they drove away from the cities center, the more beautiful the scenery became. Of course she had seen some of it before, but there was something different about taking it all in from a human perspective. She wasn't just catching glimpses as she snapped from place to place taking care of business, she was seeing it all, every tree, every bird, heck she was even feeling each and every bump along the way. "And here I thought Los Angeles' streets were bad," Angel leaned down to whisper after they went over a particularly rough patch of road. 

Luckily things seemed to calm once they ventured off the poorly cemented streets to the dirt path of the savanna. Their driver informed them that it was a bit of a drive to the resort Angel had chosen, but he had also mentioned that there was no telling what wild life they may catch a glimpse of along the way, especially since the resort was within a wildlife refuge, protected from poachers - at least to the best of their capabilities- it wasn't unusual to catch a glimpse of a herd of elephants or some other wild creature lurking about. 

"So, umm," Angel cleared his throat, "Should we be concerned, about-about lions or anything?" 

A hearty laugh immediately burst out of the driver, "I don't think the two of you will have much to worry about where you're going. The E&E is one of most luxurious  _ and  _ romantic places you'll find this side of the Nile. I guarantee you and the misses will have the time of your lives." 

"Oh we're not," Buffy smiled, trying to think of the right words to say. She looked to Angel for some sort of guidance but he just sat back and smirked, shooting her a quick wink in the process. "We're not actually married," she finally settled on while not taking her eyes off Angel. 

The driver glanced at the two of them from the rear view, "Aye well, perhaps you'll be a step closer to walkin down that aisle once ya leave."

Buffy couldn't shake the feeling that there was something oddly familiar about their dark skinned driver. Not in a physical sense, she had definitely never seen him before, of that she was certain, but still there was something about his mannerisms, the way he spoke. Honestly he reminded her of Doyle in a lot of ways, though that wasn't it either. After a while she gave up on trying to figure it and let herself get lost in the view surrounding them. 

OoOoO

Angel finally felt like he was able to release the breath he'd been unknowingly holding once they arrived at the resort. Even though it had stellar reviews and the driver had done nothing but rave about the place he was still worried they were going to pull up to some nightmare hole in the wall. Privacy being of utmost importance, each of the bungalows stood separately, private staircases led to a balcony with its very own jacuzzi. 

There was a separate living area, and kitchenette, the only caveat to the place being that even though there were two beds as he'd requested there was only one bedroom, which in his mind kind of defeated the whole purpose. He wasn't sure how well he was going to be able to handle being so close and yet so far from her as they drifted off to dreamland. The bathroom only caused his anxiety about the matter to increase, everything seemed to be made for two. Double rainfall showerheads in the custom stone shower, along with another two person jacuzzi. He could see why this place attracted so many honeymooners. 

After the baggage handler had brought all their bags up and they were finally left alone, he walked up behind where she stood in front of one of the floor length windows. "See anything interesting," he questioned, wrapping his arms around her from behind. 

He felt her tense, but after just a moment or two she seemed to relax, shaking her head against him. "No, I'm just taking it all in, I can't believe how beautiful this place is. It must have cost a fortune," she glared out the corner of her eye. 

He shrugged, tightening his arms around her, "Worth every penny," he whispered, his lips brushing lightly against her ear. He was beyond grateful that she wasn't pulling away from him just now, or putting that old familiar wall back in place, but they hadn't exactly came to any sort concrete conclusions about what they were or weren't doing here on the plane either. 

Turning in his arms she brought her hands to rest on either side of his neck. "What am I supposed to do with you," she questioned softly, her eyes inadvertently dropping down to his lips. She could feel her heart starting to do that weird fluttery thing it did whenever she was close to him, the last twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind when it came to where she saw the two of them. Too much had happened between them to just shut him out the way she'd been doing, but that still didn't change all of the unknowns. 

"Kiss me."

As much as everything inside of her was screaming at her to run, to push him away, to listen to the voice of reason, she just couldn't bring herself to do it, not this time. Her need for him was too strong, now she knew what it felt like to kiss him, to feel him against her. Raising up on her tiptoes she tilted her head and barely grazed her lips against his before pulling back turning her head the other way to try and keep some semblance of control. "I don't know what's happening here," she admitted though. 

"That's part of the fun," he promised in his own whispered voice. "Figuring it out." She could feel his arms holding her tighter, her attention being drawn right back to him. Before she could say anything else, his lips were on hers again. Gasping from the increased force behind his movements, she stilled for a moment as his tongue swept inside of her mouth, unsure of what to do. 

After a couple moments passed, it seemed like her body had a mind of its own, somehow or another her mouth seeming to know how to respond and she just let herself get lost in the feel and taste of him all over again. Every single time he touched her or looked at her, kissed her.. it all felt so foreign and unknown to her, and yet at the same time it all felt like it was almost what was supposed to be happening, like she belonged right here in his arms.

She wasn't sure how exactly it all came to pass, but it wasn't long before she found herself off the ground, her legs wrapped around his, his hands holding her in place just under her bottom. And then the next thing she knew, he was carting her over to the closest place to sit down, holding her steady on his lap in the oversized chair they'd taken up in. 

Feeling a hardness starting to form underneath her, Buffy moaned again, though only fully broke away from him when she became too desperate for air. Hands on his shoulders, she couldn't seem to help it as her hips pressed her body down against him, seeking more. "I like how this feels," she whispered so softly she wasn't entirely sure he had even heard her until his eyes widened. 

Blushing some, she felt like she had an okay-ish idea of how human relationships worked in some ways, and she had seen a countless amount of movies during her time on the planet, but once the words spilled out of her she wished she could just stuff them right back in. "Sorry. I shouldn't h-have said that," she told him, her cheeks only deepening in their color. 

Angel quickly shook his head, nearly smirking as he reached back for her. "That's exactly what I want you to say," he whispered before his mouth slanted across hers.

OoOoO

A large packet of menus and delivery services were brought to them, with apologies it hadn't been returned to the room earlier, and Buffy's stomach automatically started to growl once her eyes fell on some of the glossy photos across most of them. Reminding him of his previous promise to feed her properly once they were on the ground, he nodded, telling her to pick out anything she wanted before excusing himself to go take a shower. 

Truthfully, he was feeling starved once he took note of their offerings as well, not minding one bit their special offers with some of the local eateries, and a long shower and probably trying to get at least a couple hours worth of sleep in since all this travelling was really starting to catch right back up to him... but he was also wondering how far things could have gone had it not been for that knock on the door. 

And there was a deep fear inside of him still lingering that at any second she'd just close him off again. 

OoOoO

Staying well after the point the water had turned cold, Angel found Buffy setting up a little picnic-like area for them on the floor back in the living room, his eyes watching her rearrange their food no less than three times before she even noticed him standing near. 

"It felt like a better idea when I started."

Shaking his head, Angel came closer, dropping down to the laid out blanket. "Everything you do is perfect," he told her softly, brushing a loose strand of her golden locks out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. "Now, what exactly did you go and order me?" he asked, having given her the go ahead earlier to surprise him. 

At that, she seemed to lighten up a little, she patted for him to go over to his proper pillow seat. 

OoOoO

After about the fifteenth time she had yawned or almost fallen over now, Angel urged her to go take a shower, change or just go lay down if she wanted while he hopped on clean up duty after they were done. Not even feeling able to move at first, she watched him take what leftovers they had off to the kitchen and set them inside the little fridge they had to use on their stay. 

After prying herself up off the floor so he could get to the mess she'd made of some of the extra blankets and pillows, she yawned again as she dug through her bag to find some sleepwear to change into. Staring at the large shower, she decided only after undressing to at least attempt to wash some of the grime from the day off of her, hoping she wouldn't find herself falling asleep in there, falling over from it and busting her head or something too. 

Closing her eyes, she let the warm spray wash over her, already feeling some of her muscles finally relax. 

Her mind, however, was anything but. 

Blushing at herself in the mirror once she cleared it from steam, she pretended she wasn't just imagining Angel having stood here not long ago, or of him in the shower. Quickly doing her best to dry off enough, she changed and finished getting ready, placing her used clothes off in the small hamper, turning the lights off and padding on bare feet back to the bedroom. 

Sliding her bag off the bed, Buffy didn't waste a lot of time crawling underneath the warm, inviting covers, burying herself in the surprising softness that awaited her. 

It wasn't but a couple minutes before Angel joined her, his eyes seeming to take in every inch of the picture she made as he crossed over to his own bed, the look he was giving her took all she had not to shiver under. Swallowing hard, she watched as he lowered himself onto his bed, his legs hanging off as he looked back to her. 

"I haven't actually ever slept in the same room as someone else before," she blurted. 

"Never?"

Buffy thought back but then shook her head, nothing coming to mind about such... the closest being falling asleep beside him back on the plane. And that whole situation had ended with more than either of them had bargained for. The idea of being around him for so long, being under the same roof as him the majority of the time had already been weighing on her mind since she agreed to all of this, but actually sharing the same room as him seemed to be asking for nothing but trouble. 

Angel didn't say anything as he laid back, mimicking her same position from across the way. Fighting back the urge to hop from the warmth of his own bed and take the few steps into hers, he took a steadying breath before speaking, "Well if you get lonely," he grinned lifting his covers slightly, but he didn't get to finish whatever it was that he was about to say due to the pillow she tossed his way, "Just offering," he laughed easily, tossing the pillow back her way. 

It was scary how tempted she was to take him up on his offer. There was something about being close to him that made her feel untouchable, like nothing bad could ever happen to her as long as she was wrapped up in his arms. Fate, destiny, the powers, all things that normally took up so much of her day to day life didn't seem to matter when she let herself get lost in him. Though, each time when reality came crashing back down sheer terror coursed through her each time she thought about the ramifications of what she was letting happen here. 

"Good night Angel," she whispered softly before pressing the small button on her nightstand to turn off the lights. Forcing herself to close her eyes, she tried her best to keep her thoughts on anything except for the man in the bed across from her as she felt herself drifting off into a deep slumber. 

OoOoO

Angel laid awake long after he noticed Buffy begin to softly snore across from him. Never in his life had he ever felt the overwhelming urge put someone before himself, to make sure that she was happy, that she was safe, to share his life so openly just to get the slightest smile from her. He was exhausted no doubt, but he couldn't shake the days memories from his mind, the plane, how her small hand worked him while countless others surrounded them. Then later after they'd arrived how she'd let him carry her over to the large arm chair and have his way with her, how much she seemed to enjoy it too. 

A part of him couldn't wait for tomorrow, but a bigger part of him didn't want morning to ever come, he wished more than anything there was a way to slow down time so that he could draw out every single moment with her. Back in Los Angeles it had been so hard to break through her all business exterior, even though he'd managed to a few times she was an expert at slamming that wall back up. Since they left though, there'd been a change in her, almost like she was just as tired of fighting whatever it was brewing between them as he was. He just hoped that the new day wouldn't bring another change in her attitude towards what was happening with them. One thing was for sure, he was certain he was long passed the point of even pretending to enjoy another woman's company, afterall how could he after everything today. 

After letting his gaze rake over her one more time, he finally forced his eyes shut. He wouldn't be any fun come tomorrow if he didn't get some sleep, and they had one hell of an adventure waiting for them. Not to mention the longer he laid there watching her the more he had to fight the urge to go pulling her into his arms, and no matter how badly he craved just that he didn't want to pressure her into anything she wasn't ready for. 

OoOoO

She could feel consciousness trying to claim her once more, fighting like hell, she tried her best to stay safely tucked away in her own little dream world. Though no matter how hard she tried, safe confines of sleep began to fade being slowly replaced with thoughts and memories if just where she was. Her mind had just begun to spin with thoughts of panic and embarrassment over everything that happened the day before when she felt a warm body pulling her closer. Snapping her eyes open, her first thought was to start chastising him about sneaking into her bed, except it wasn't her bed they were in, it was his, and despite how much she tried she couldn't for the life of her remember how she'd gotten here. 

His arm tightened around her waist as he snuggled closer behind her, as far as ways to be woken up this one certainly landed somewhere near the top of her list, but it still didn't mean that it should be happening she tried to remind herself. She was just trying to come up with a plan of what to do, of how she could sneak out of his bed, of his embrace without waking him when felt his lips pressing softly against the skin just below her ear. She tensed for a second, but it was useless, it seemed no matter how hard she tried she couldn't fight the way her body responded to him. A soft sigh even escaped her when he continued his journey, leaving a trail of hot random kisses all the way down the slope of her neck to the top of her shoulder. 

"Angel," she gasped when his hand dared to slip beneath the smooth silk pajama top she'd worn to bed the night before. Everywhere he touched seemed to tingle with electricity, and though the logical part of her brain knew she should be pumping the breaks on this whole scenario, she just couldn't form the words to tell him to stop. She heard him mumble some incoherent response, then almost before she knew what was happening he was pulling her beneath him, rolling on top of her and lazily capturing her lips as if in some attempt to mute any objections she might have. 

He'd told himself he was going to behave, that he wasn't going to push her into anything, and he wasn't, but waking up and feeling her pressed so intimately against him, well there was only so much a man could resist, especially when it came to her in his bed. He wasn't sure when or how she'd gotten there and quite frankly he didn't much care either, not with the way her tongue was slipping into his mouth, drawing his own out to play. Had they been in any other position, doing anything else than what they were, he wouldn't have been able to fight the feeling of satisfaction ballooning inside. 

"Good morning beautiful," he whispered after she'd been forced by the need for air to pull away. He could see the faintest blush tinting her cheeks when she finally managed to make eye contact with him, but much to his enjoyment unlike times before she made no moves to pull away. Instead he felt her small fingers wrap around his neck and tangle in the small hairs she found back there. 

Still not trusting the words that were swirling around inside of her, she gently tugged against him, bringing his mouth back down to her own. Her thighs on either side of him, she couldn't help but get utterly lost in everything about him. Squeezing her legs tighter around his warm body, drawing him in even closer to her. She gasped against his mouth as she felt his hardness press against her center, a sensation she was becoming more and more comfortable with, and yet sent her mind, body, and soul all into a massive spiral every time they found themselves in such a position all the same. 

Angel's large hand settled against her hip, easily angling her just a little but enough that it made her entire leg twitch and drew out a low moan from each of them from the contact. Angel's lips never seemed to leave her though, dipping down to take advantage of her exposed neck as she arched deeper into him. 

OoOoO

The alarm blasting through the room just barely managed to raise the fog he was happily under, panting heavily it took him even a few seconds to place what the sound was, or why. 

Reaching over, he hit the damn contraption until it stopped chirping angrily at him before letting all of his attention fall back to the beauty encased underneath him. Kissing her with just a little less urgency, he tried to clear his mind and calm his body down a little. As much as this right here was nothing short of heaven as far as he was concerned, he knew better than to get too carried away. If this was going to be all he needed it to be between them, it all had to be done right. 

There was nothing wrong with some early morning heavy petting, though.

Easing things down, Angel popped a quick kiss onto Buffy's nose, enchanted in absolutely everything about the damn woman flipping his world on its head time and time again. "You look better in my bed each and every time," he said with a laugh and earned another one of those famous pink blushes from the blonde. 

Buffy squirmed a bit under his gaze and scratched absently at her hair. "I don't even remember how I got over here," she admitted. 

"Mmm, must have been fate, a wish come true maybe..." he said with a big smile before kissing her once more, already seeing her trying to roll those pretty eyes of hers at him. 

Forcing himself to pull away, Buffy's eyes seemed to become glued to the tenting that remained in the front of his pants. "I-I th-thought we didn't have a-any plans for today," she barely seemed to get out and he was pretty sure he swelled to new records as her meaning hit through him. 

Clearing his throat, Angel nodded. They had a number of adventures booked for this trip but today he'd made sure to leave open in case they were still too tired or whatever from the journey, hoping they could relax a bit more and try to adjust to it all. However, sleeping forever wasn't bound to help, and he had heard her go on about some giant breakfast platter that was as big as the table enough times that when he wasn't dreaming of her, he sure was picturing this magical meal, so he had planned to attempt getting there to surprise her this morning. 

It seemed a lot less important right now, even as he told her of his plan. When the other option is being tangled up with this woman, any other option fails to be of any importance he was learning day after day.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Buffy had about been mowed over by him as she stepped out of the little bedroom, his hands had easily caught her however, keeping her balanced before bringing her closer to him. Everything in her hands fell easily to the ground as she replaced them with him, her hands sliding up his arms as he lifted her into the air, legs circling around his waist before he had her pinned to the wall. 

Buffy's fingertips cradled the side of his face gently as his lips met hers, now for the countless time. That little bubble of panic remained but, boy, was she getting better at ignoring it these past couple of days. 

All the hard work she'd put into trying to get her breathing and heart rate back to normal went right back out the window, already breathless from him all over again before she knew it. Angel pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes for a moment. "I know that I'm not worth you risking your entire life for, everything you've ever known and all of that. I know that it's selfish as fucking hell on my part to still pray several times a damn day for it anyway," he whispered. 

"Angel..." she tried but he shook his head.

"I don't need the speech, or some list of reasons why that's the wrong thing to say. I can only pretend so much and that really is all it is when I'm not around you. I know that I've been pressing my luck with this whole entire trip, even the damn idea of it let alone how these past couple of days have been going, but I can't help but want to let this run as far as you will let it, I can't help but to want to tell you how right all of this feels."

Buffy was quiet for a moment before her eyes lowered to the middle of his chest. "And what if all these  _ lusty feelings  _ or whatever you have... what if that's all it is? Chasing after something just because you're being told you can't have it?" she voiced one of her endless concerns about everything that happened to be involving this man. "What if you lose out on something real, Angel? Because of  _ me _ , because of that?"

His head shook again. "Whatever this is between you and I?  _ That's  _ real. I don't know, maybe there's some timeline, some train of events, or whatever that could easily give me some other life but I am not worried about any of that. From the day I even met you it was almost some instant feeling inside of me that said, that screamed, _ her. That's her.  _ That's some missing puzzle piece to your whole existence and it's just been proven more true time and time again. I'm not by any means some perfect person, maybe an alright one," he said with a chuckle. "I'm not terrible at least. I'm not worth all of those worries in your head, but I want to be."

Angel cleared his throat as her eyes raised to meet his again. "I want you in the most obvious of ways, anyone can see that... but believe me it goes well beyond that to the simplest, purest ones, to feeling like I am up in the clouds when I know you are happy or that you're having a good time, truly enjoying yourself. More than anything I just want to be able to let you experience that as much as possible, to feel happy and... and safe.  _ Free _ . I want you to know you deserve your own bit of happiness and to feel like you belong, here, on this earth, to someone," his voice lowered slightly. "To me."

For the countless time, she wondered if he had this super power over all women, or if it only worked for her. Regardless she was pretty sure there wasn't much she wouldn't risk losing to call this man hers. Her life, her work, her existence, all of it seemed to matter a whole lot less when she thought about even trying to go on living without him being a part of it. "I don't know if I can promise you forever Angel, I don't know what will happen once they find out."

He leaned his forehead down to rest against her own, his lips just a soft breath above her swollen pout. "We can worry about forever later, right now I just need you to promise me today, tomorrow, this week…" He trailed off, "However long we can get until we're forced to figure the rest out."

He could almost see the emotions swirling around her green orbs, without thinking his grip around her tightened just a bit, silently begging her to give them a chance. "I won't hurt you Buffy, and for as long as you'll allow it I promise I'll do everything in my power to make sure no one else does either." 

Tears filled her eyes, never in her life had she ever felt more conflicted. She felt like she was standing on the edge of some precipice and she knew that as soon as she let go there wouldn't be any coming back. But they couldn't keep up with the way things were now either, this back and forth game wasn't working anymore. Angel had made it clear it had no interest in anyone else, and she wasn't quite so sure she could just sit by while he went off and about with some other woman now anyway. She craved him in a way she hadn't even known was possible, in a way that extended beyond physical, though she was in pretty deep on that front too.

Arching up she closed the distance between them, touching her lips to his. She could feel the tension leaving him as he deepened the kiss, realizing just what it meant. 

OoOoO

She pushed the plate full of different sample size deserts closer to him, "If I eat another bite I may explode." 

Wrapping his arm around her, he pulled her closer to his side. Breakfast or  _ brunch _ as Buffy would insist, did not disappoint, though after their little talk earlier it took all he had to pull himself away from her long enough to come down here. He still couldn't believe she'd agreed, that they were really doing this, that they were actually giving themselves some time to see just what whatever this was between them could be. As far as he was concerned this was it, she was his happily ever after, and he planned on spending every second of this little trip trying to make sure she felt the same. 

Grabbing the last strawberry on the plate he dipped into the small bowl of sugar before popping it in her mouth. She whined his name as she tried to chew the fruit, "No more." 

Grinning he waited for her to finish eating before capturing her lips under the guise of getting the remaining sugar of her mouth. He was the luckiest man on the planet, that he was sure of. "What did you want to for the rest of the day," he asked a bit breathless once they'd finally pulled apart. Thankfully the staff seemed to be rather used to such displays since they mostly seemed to cater to couples, not that he cared, he planned to savor every second now that she wasn't hesitating or pulling back at his touch. 

"You mean besides that," she teased. 

Already feeling himself stirring back to life, he leaned in closer, "Careful what you wish for there, Beautiful."

OoOoO

She must have mentioned seeing the elephants more than once because after they left the restaurant Angel insisted on climbing some of the look out spots until they were able to spot some wandering about the sanctuary. They had a whole excursion booked for later in the week to go feed and bath some of the calves who had been orphaned due to poaching, but his insistence was still sweet. 

Despite her profession she really hadn't the slightest clue how to go about this whole dating business. But everytime she would start to feel those familiar doubts swirling he would grab her hand or wrap his arms around her and whisper sweet things reminding her all over again how perfect he truly was. Even though she still felt an insurmountable amount of guilt over what he may be missing out on, having him close like this made it all that much easier to ignore. 

Plus she had to admit that she was finding teasing him in this brand new way was more than a little entertaining. He had this way of making her feel like no one else existed besides her and she never wanted that to go away. She went to turn to see if she could spot anything from the other side of the large rocks they had climbed up when she felt his massive frame encircle her, pulling her flush against him. They had definitely advanced from the shy kisses she'd grown so accustomed to, something between them seemed to have shifted after this morning, leaving neither of them interested in holding much back. 

Her finger trailed down the soft material of the t-shirt he'd thrown on this morning coming to a stop only when they met the elastic of his shorts. She wasn't sure where all this courage was coming from but the next thing she knew she felt her hand drifting lower as though it had a mind all of its own. Gently she traced the outline of his rigid length through the silky fabric, it must have come of a shock to him because for the briefest second he broke away with a small gasp. Whispering his name, she nibbled at his lips one more time. 

"Hmm?"

Working her lip between her teeth, she forced herself to say the words she'd been thinking ever since the plane ride. "I want..." she blushed, pausing for a second knowing that once she said what she wanted to say there would be no going back. 

"You want what," he asked his voice far huskier than he'd intended. 

She swallowed hard before meeting his eyes again, "I want to know how it feels to touch you." 

His pulse quickened, it wasn't often that he found himself speechless, and honestly he wasn't sure it had ever been caused by a woman before, though he couldn't say he was surprised. "Buffy," he whispered softly nuzzling his nose alongside hers, "Are you sure?" 

He was one hundred percent positive that there was nothing he wanted more in his entire life, but he didn't want to pressure her into anything, and he damn sure didn't want her waking up with any regrets or excuses to end this before it really got started. 

Buffy was fairly certain that he had to be able to hear how hard her heart was racing, trying to beat its way out of her damn chest right about now. There was something quite liberating about this whole ordeal, after fighting all of this for what felt like ages, after fighting against her own damn self when it came to this damn man... to give in... it felt like she was floating up in the clouds, like she had found one amazing sense of peace already just to have said she wanted this, wanted him, and having explored bits of it, it felt like that she had, for the first time, found even herself. That quote about once you realize what you want forever, you want it all to start right then had never made more sense than it had after this morning. She wanted him, to really let herself feel what she had been trying to deny since the moment she laid eyes on him, to explore things she had never in her long existence never even cared about before he came along. 

The world felt like it had opened up for her the moment she gave in to all of this. And while those same worries did remain in the back of her mind about the what ifs of these choices, a huge shift happened there as well, it no longer felt like something to be terrified of or to cower from... but more like it was a worry but also a driving force that she had no idea how long they would have together or what might even happen, and instead of that pushing her away anymore... it made her want to have as they could manage to squeeze in together between now and that point where she would have to answer for how things went sideways on this job. 

Buffy pushed herself a bit closer to him as her head barely managed to nod. 

OoOoO

Angel had found himself only more stunned by Buffy from that point on, his eyes fluttering shut as she continued to explore, and then opening comically wide when she dared to follow through with her request... which, again, shouldn't have been so surprising, but it was the fact she took no issue with doing so right then and there. He strangled out some sort of noise just as he realized what she was doing, her warm fingertips slipping between his body and the front of his boxers until she reached her destination. 

For just a moment, she pulled back as if he had burned her, but it passed just as quickly... her teeth caught that same bit of flesh from her bottom lip again as she teased, her fingers would lightly hold him, or stroke him, she would slide just a finger against his length, testing him out one way after the next. 

Breathing heavier once she easily grew more comfortable with her actions, she stood up on her tip toes and whispered her desire to also see him. His body shook slightly as he let out a large breath and explained that if they might need to be a little less out in the open like this for any clothes to start being tossed to the wayside. Not that had she objected he wouldn't have happily ripped his shorts off and let her do whatever in the hell she wanted... but what little logical part of his brain that still had any function in it thought they might be asking for trouble here. 

Buffy's face tinted red, also remembering where they were in that moment. 

OoOoO

Once they were back behind closed doors, they'd easily continued right back to their play, lifting her back into his arms, her legs circling around his waist, arms around his neck as he pinned her against the heavy door and despite the number of women he had been with in his lifetime, Angel still found himself a tad nervous when it came to her. 

"Keep in mind I have no idea at all what I am doing," Buffy had whispered at once point and he couldn't help but smile at her mirrored nervousness and worries. But what she didn't know was literally anything she did in his eyes was exactly the right thing, or how much his pride soared when her fingers tugged at his shirt, helping remove it from his body and toss it back behind him blindly, and how he ate up how her eyes wandered over his bare skin, drinking all of him in without shutting down as soon as it began. She didn't know exactly how fucking adorable she was when she would rest her palms against his chest, or hesitantly rake her fingernails gently down his stomach, or do just about anything and then would pause to flick her eyes up to meet his as if she was checking to make sure it was okay. 

He growled when she reached for his manhood again, nearly making her jump before she quietly reminded him of her wants. 

OoOoO

Between whispering she wanted to see him, all of him, again and the point where they had made it over to the large sofa and she curled up beside him were kind of a blur, his fingertips tangled up in her hair as his tongue teased hers and her hand returned to the warmth of his lap. 

Buffy had a pretty clinical understanding of human bodies and how they worked but that did next to nothing to prepare her for a situation like this. Hell, she had seen a couple men - not intending to - in brief flashes in her time or there were always bits and pieces from movies or television show she may have caught as well but to actually be living something like that was completely different than anything she could have imagined. And as his free hand covered hers and helped her free him from the confides of his shorts and boxers, Buffy's eyes couldn't seem to stop staring at the angry looking flesh before her. 

His hand drifted back away and all of a sudden she had an urge to pull away from him as well, her face burning as she wondered just what she had gone and gotten herself into. 

Swallowing, it took a few tries to work up the courage to return to touching him, a lone fingertip enjoying the soft, velvet-like feeling as she ran from the mushroom looking tip all the way back down. 

OoOoO

Angel swallowed hard as he watched her. His thoughts rang back to the fact of he had been with all sorts of women in his day, women who knew exactly what they were doing in the bedroom, or close enough to such... and not a single one of them could hold a candle to the shyness mixed with curiosity that flowed from this damn woman. 

Buffy grew bolder, too, her fingertips swirling around the head of his cock, doing her best to wrap her hand around him, feeling the weight of him against her palm. She fell into a rhythm of moving her hand up and down, his breath grew heavier as he tried his best to let her have her way. He was enjoying it now doubt, and in no way did he want her to stop, but her slow and steady movement were quickly starting to border torture. Linking his hand with hers, he gently guided her arm around his neck before tugging her fully across him. 

" _ Hey _ ," she pouted just before he slanted his lips over hers. "I was having fun there," she managed albeit a little breathless. 

Not even trusting himself to speak he adjusted his shorts before gathering her back in his arms and making his way across the short distance to the bed. She felt like she was floating, she wasn't sure how she'd mustered up the strength to deny him for so long, as her back came into contact with the soft mattress she couldn't even imagine pushing him away or flickering out of this reality. Even though she was pretty sure she had never been so nervous in her entire life she still wanted him in a way she wasn't sure she could even describe. 

OoOoO

She didn't really know when or how it had happened but she soon found all of herself lying bare beneath his gaze. Angel had just slid the lacey pair of undies she had on off her ankles and he was currently nipping his way back up between her thighs. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to ignore the butterflies fluttering around inside her, she may not be very experienced-or experienced at all- but she was far from a prude, though right now she'd be lying if she denied that old familiar sense of fight or flight wasn't creeping up. 

Sensing the tension coursing through her he paused just inches from her center. Even though she'd been so bold earlier he didn't want to send her into a panic. "Buffy," he whispered huskily, "Are you sure this is okay?"

Instead of answering him her fingers found their way back to his hair, gripping him firmly she giggled at the brazen move, tugging him towards her. 

Everytime he thought he had her figured out she would go and do something like that, surprising him all over again. His heart swelled, all he'd wanted since laying eyes on her was for her to want him as much as he did her. His focus regained, he carefully ran his tongue up the slit of her hot core, her grip on him loosened until it fell away completely. This had never been his favorite act, but just like everything else it seemed, when it came to her he couldn't get enough. 

Wanting to savor every second he took his time working her, wanting-needing- to savor every second, every sound. He loved the way she tasted, the way she moved, but most of all he loved how she tried to hold back, to stay still and quiet. It was almost like they had entered some silent battle, he would tease and torment, circle her clit, all while she held back. She couldn't win though, not this, he'd go lightly just long enough for her to think she was back in control before he'd suck her swollen nub between his lips again or lightly roll it between his teeth, causing her to lose her precious composure again and again. 

OoOoO

Her thighs were trembling, her whole body seeming to shake with need before he finally slid his index finger into her silky depths. Her body, not used to the intrusion clamped and rippled around the intrusive digit, causing him to groan at the sensation and his cock to throb in response. Having long since lost the ability to keep quiet, he hung onto every whimper, every sound she made. Had he any doubts before, he was now certain that she, her body and soul, had been made just for him. Whoever it was, God, The Powers, they had designed them for each other, and he wanted nothing less than forever with this woman, consequences be damned. 

She'd long stopped fighting whatever it was that was happening to her, apparently Angel really was more in tune with her body than she was because he was making her feel things, making her respond in ways she hadn't even known she could. Another wave of intense heat seemed to spread throughout her entire body when he inserted a second finger inside her, her hips, all on their own it seemed, rocked and rolled in an attempt to draw him closer, to pull him deeper inside of her.

Much to her surprise, she felt her own hands cupping her full breast, rolling the over sensitive peaks between her fingers. She felt like she couldn't breathe, couldn't think straight even, all she knew was that whatever he was doing she didn't want him to stop, ever. Suddenly all those worries she'd been holding onto all this time, the powers, her friends, hell even her existence, didn't seem to matter anymore. All she cared about, all she could think about was the perfect depiction of a man pressed to intimately against her. 

Feeling him pause inside her, she heard some strangled noise escape her and for the life of her she couldn't even decipher what she'd said. The best she could make out was the please at the end, so that's what she hung onto chanting it over and over again. Though not even she was sure what she was begging for, but he couldn't possibly expect her to go on like this, and she certainly hoped he didn't expect her to be able just get up or walk away. With the way her whole body seemed to shake, she wasn't even sure that she was physically capable of standing, much less walking. 

No, she was on the edge of something spectacular, and even though the thought of tumbling over that cliff terrified her, she couldn't help but race towards it. Angel seemed to know it too because everytime she felt that end nearing, every time she felt like all this pleasure inside her might explode, he would slow down, change the way his mouth moved against her, or withdraw his fingers completely, and that glorious feeling she felt spreading inside of her would dissipate just enough to make her want to beg for it back. In a way it felt like one of those rides she rode at the theme park, even her stomach would clench as she neared that peak only to stop when he managed to pull her back down. 

OoOoO

He was well aware how close to the edge she was teetering, and he had an idea how absolutely crazy he was making her, but he couldn't deny that he was loving every moment. The way her tiny moans had turned into soft breathy pleas, the way she couldn't quite seem to figure out just what to do with her hands, how they would go from wrapped around his hair, to clenching the fabric of the sheets, to her own nipples in some attempt to alleviate the ache he was sure was there. 

This, this right here was what he wanted to go after from the first damn moment he laid eyes on her, or well, close to that first moment... after the confusion as to who she was and why she was in his apartment anyhow. Then again after he thought she was some psycho spouting off endless nonsense. This was what he wanted to show her, experience with her, use as one more avenue to try and explain where his head and heart were when it came to everything she was, share with her how it felt to been wanted, needed, loved. Sure, at first it had started out as pure lust, the girl was fucking beautiful after all, but it had all developed long since then into more than he would have ever imagined, too. All he wanted was her, against the rules, right or wrong, none of that mattered. He wanted her in his bed, in his life, in every aspect of his existence. 

The more he had gotten to know Buffy, the more he had caught on to those sad looks of longing for more out of life that she tried so hard to keep hidden and to pretend like everything was okay and the more he'd wanted to be the one to show her that she mattered as something more than a passing wish granter in people's lives, that she mattered to him, that she could have whatever she, too, desired... if she would just give in to it. And how he just wanted to be part of it all. 

With a soft smile on his lips, his eyes lifted back to Buffy's face as she cried out his name again in a strangled voice. 

"Hmm?"

He could have swore there were almost frustrated tears in her eyes as she mumbled on about how something didn't feel right and how people aren't supposed to feel like this forever. 

Chuckling, her assured her she was okay before kissing along the inside of her thigh, down from her knee, before settling back in to finally allow the poor girl some relief before she swore him off from touching her ever again. 

OoOoO

Buffy couldn't settle on the idea of if she was seeing just some bright white light, pure darkness, or blurry colorful dots dancing across her eyes, at times unsure if she still had them squeezed shut or if she was just having some tripped out reaction and had lost vision from what in the hell this man was doing to her body. 

Never in her long life had she felt like she had less control of a situation, of her feelings, of her own damn body. That was something he'd been struggling with since meeting Angel but being before him like this was not even close to something she'd been prepared for. 

Buffy felt that bubbling start back up between her legs and warmth spread throughout her whole body, the slight trembles turning into stronger quakes, her body wanting to dig further into the bed and lift up into the air at the same time, same as the push and pull of this need to draw him as close s possible and yet a sensation of wanting to push him away because it all felt like too damn much. 

By the time she realized the change to this perfect torment, it was almost too late. Angel's warm tongue continued to lick and lap at her even after those first beginning shakes started to overtake her rather than switching direction or cooling his pace, no, instead he seemed to move with more purpose which made her eyes want to pop out of her head and slam shut, unsure of which would help. His fingers slid easily in and out of her, working in perfect unison with what his mouth was doing to her, her mind unable to help itself as she imagined something quite different being inside of her in their place. 

Feeling her breath catch in her throat, her lungs burning, her heels dug into his back as she tried to brace for the impact of whatever this unknown was she was diving into. A completely new, stronger sensation started to over take her, one that seemed to spread out from her core down to the tips of her toes and the very top of her head, her legs felt like jello before turning stuff, shooting out on their own accord in whatever direction they could find, while her hips lifted, thighs locking around Angel's head as her vision went haywire. Whatever noise came flooding out of her she couldn't have even began to tell you, and was sure Angel's hearing was so damn muffled at that point he couldn't have either, but she felt something escape her. Her mind blanked and all she could feel was utter fucking bliss in that moment. Nothing else on the planet, in this world or any other, mattered. Just him.

OoOoO

Angel's hands explored her body as he made his way back to her level, eating up how perfect she felt, how she still trembled when he grazed her hip, her twin mounds, as he lightly cupped her cheek, drawing her to his lips as he settled in above her. It was endlessly conflicting with this woman, how he didn't want to rush her but also how it felt like he'd been waiting a lifetime for this, and something inside of him made him want to believe she almost had been too, just never knew it. 

When he pulled back away, he struggled keeping a straight face as she still looked dazed and confused, her eyes bright and a bit glazed over. "Hi there," he finally managed out. 

Somehow that alone made her start to pinken up a bit, despite the fact of everything else that had gone on just minutes ago. "H-hi."

"You're fucking perfect, you know that?" he whispered before slanting his mouth to hers once again, cutting off whatever reply she had planned to say. 


End file.
